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SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

MISSIONARY 

INCIDENTS AND 

EXERCISES 

by 

JOHN M. SOMERNDIKE 



1916 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 

AND SABBATH SCHOOL WORK 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

MISSIONARY 

INCIDENTS 

AND 

EXERCISES 

BY 

JOHN M. SOMERNDIKE 

Author of "On The Firing Line With the Sunday- 
School Missionary" and "By-Products 
of the Rural Sunday School" 



1916 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 

PHILADELPHIA 






~A*> 



Copyright, 1915 

by the Trustees of 

The Presbyterian Board of Publication 

and Sabbath School Work 



t- 



& 



AUG -7 1916 

©CIA437143 
J / t 



CONTENTS 



i 

PAGE 

Missionary Education in the Sunday School 5 

Why This Book? 1 7 

New Emphasis on Missionary Education 7 

Essential to a Standard School 8 

Missionary Studies in the Graded Courses 9 

Opportunities for Expression 9 

Special Objects 10 

Through the Eye Gate 11 

Literature 11 

II 
Stories from the Field 13 

1. "Aren't You the Sunday-School Starter?" 15 

2. How Aunt Sylvia Helped the Sunday-School 

Missionary 18 

3. How the Missionary Took Christmas to Fair- 

view 20 

4. He Walked One Hundred and Fifty Miles to 

Preach 23 

5. How a Sunday-School Quarterly Brought Him 

Back 25 

6. The Sky Pilot Who Could Not Be Frightened.. 28 

7. Waited Thirty-Three Years for the Missionary. 30 

8. A Recruit for the Ministry 33 

9. The Gospel in Many Languages 35 

3 



4 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

io. Among the Gold Seekers 38 

11. The Returned Emigrant a Missionary 40 

12. Missionary Heroes in America 42 

13. Only Ten Per Cent in Sunday Schools 43 

14. Missionary Scouts and Pioneers 46 

15. A Wild Mountain Boy Becomes a Sunday- 

School Missionary 49 

16. Overcoming Difficulties in Organizing Sunday 

Schools 52 

17. The Cowboy Who Became a Preacher. 55 

18. One Hundred Miles for a Preacher 59 

III 
Fifteen-Minute Programs 61 

1. The Southern Negro 63 

2. The Southern Mountaineers 69 

3. The Children of the Plains 78 

4. Brothers of the Flag 84 

5. Our Welcome to New Americans 91 

IV 
How to Obtain Information 99 



MISSIONARY EDUCATION IN THE 
SUNDAY SCHOOL 



WHY THIS BOOK? 

The purpose of this book is twofold. It aims 
primarily to meet a demand repeatedly expressed 
in the correspondence which comes in a continu- 
ous stream to the headquarters of the Board for 
material that will be useful in promoting mis- 
sionary instruction in the Sunday school. It fur- 
ther aims to encourage in all the Sunday schools 
the larger consideration of the pioneer missionary 
work being performed by our Sunday-school mis- 
sionaries in behalf of the multitude of children and 
youth living in the outlying rural districts, boys 
and girls who are without the uplifting influence 
of the Sunday school and the Bible instruction 
which it is its purpose to impart. 

A work which is of such far-reaching impor- 
tance to the promotion of a better citizenship, and 
which is such a potent factor in determining the 
character and prosperity of the Church of the fu- 
ture, should have a prominent place in every plan 
of Sunday-school missionary education. It is a 
work which is vitally fundamental to all the other 
forms of missionary service. Its fruits are seen in 
missionary labors in the uttermost parts as well 
as in consecrated ministries in the home field. 
The appeal of neglected childhood never fails to 
awaken sympathy. This work presents the Mace- 
donian call of the unprivileged boys and girls of 
America for a share in the opportunities of Chris- 
tian training which are enjoyed by those who 
form the great Sunday-school army. 

NEW EMPHASIS ON MISSIONARY EDUCATION 

The emphasis which the Sunday-school world 
is placing upon the importance of imparting to 

7 



8 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

the pupils accurate information concerning the 
great missionary enterprises in which the Church 
is engaged and which they are expected to sup- 
port with increasing liberality proportionate to 
their ability, has led to the appointment of a Mis- 
sionary Committee in many schools to take charge 
of this phase of the school's exercises. 

The Missionary Committee finds it difficult to 
obtain suitable material arranged in a satisfactory 
way and in sufficient quantity and variety to en- 
able them to present the different aspects of mis- 
sionary activity represented by all the Boards of 
the Church to which the work at home and abroad 
has been committed. They realize that in their 
plans and programs, every phase of missionary 
effort should have its proper share of considera- 
tion. Therefore, to aid Missionary Committees 
in their work, this collection of missionary stories 
and experiences, together with several fifteen- 
minute programs giving a comprehensive view 
of special fields where Sunday-school mission- 
aries are laboring, has been prepared. Two 
fifteen-minute programs referring to work among 
foreign immigrants are included because the Gen- 
eral Assembly has committed to the Sabbath- 
School Board the responsibility of taking the 
gospel to the foreigner in America through the 
publication and distribution of religious litera- 
ture. 

ESSENTIAL TO A STANDARD SCHOOL 

The Interdenominational Sunday-School Stand- 
ard calls for systematic missionary instruction as 
a requirement of a Standard School. The new 
Advance Standard requires individual system- 
atic giving toward the church benevolences, be- 
sides the active cooperation of the Sunday school 



MISSIONARY EDUCATION 9 

and young people's organizations in mission Sun- 
day-school work. One of the ways by which these 
requirements may be met is to cultivate an inter- 
est throughout the school in the mission Sunday- 
school work which is being done through our own 
denominational agency or Board having this work 
in charge. 

MISSIONARY STUDIES IN THE GRADED COURSES 

The growing use of the graded courses, in which 
missionary lessons are included, has been the 
means of introducing missionary instruction into 
schools where previously, in the uniform lessons, 
it had been completely neglected. But even in 
these progressive schools where the graded sys- 
tem is thoroughly carried out, it has been found 
advisable to emphasize the missionary task in a 
more definite and concrete way by the use of 
special fifteen-minute exercises once a month, 
introducing missionary stories or field incidents, 
for five minutes during the opening exercises 
on each remaining Sunday of the month. 

OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXPRESSION 

It is a fundamental principle of psychology that 
with every impression an opportunity should be 
provided for expression. Our work of mission- 
ary education would be but half accomplished if 
we should confine our efforts to the imparting of 
information. The pupil may easily become habit- 
uated to participating in missionary exercises 
without realizing his responsibility for a personal 
share in the efforts to extend Christ's kingdom 
that are being brought to his attention from time 
to time. It is important, therefore, that every 



10 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

Sunday school should so arrange its financial 
methods as to provide for regular contributions to 
all forms of denominational missionary endeavor, 
not neglecting the offerings on the special days 
such as Children's Day, Rally Day, et cetera, for 
which special exercises are provided by the mis- 
sionary boards. The plan of systematic missionary 
giving was never intended to displace these spe- 
cial day offerings by means of which so much 
helpful missionary work is being accomplished. 
Some Sunday schools fall into the error of an- 
nouncing that, in view of the introduction of a 
systematic financial plan, "no special offerings 
will be taken." This reduces missionary giving 
to a mere mechanical process and leaves no room 
for the appeal to make its impress upon the heart 
and life by furnishing an opportunity to respond. 
It overlooks entirely the educational value of the 
inspiration to attempt and accomplish something 
worthy of a follower of Christ. 

SPECIAL OBJECTS 

One of the most effective methods of develop- 
ing missionary interest and giving is to have a 
specific field or object toward which the contri- 
butions to each particular cause are applied. In 
this way the Sunday-school pupils are brought 
into closer contact with the field and the worker. 
They look upon him as their representative from 
whom they receive regular reports and who has 
a large place in their sympathies and prayers. 
The adoption of a mission Sunday school in a 
needy locality requiring a contribution of but 
twenty-five dollars annually, thus furnishing it 
with needful literature and other supplies, has 
been the beginning from which a number of Sun- 



MISSIONARY EDUCATION n 

day schools have developed into large sharehold- 
ers in a Sunday-school missionary's support. 

THROUGH THE EYE GATE 

For the more intelligent consideration of Sun- 
day-school missions as set forth in this compila- 
tion of exercises, a map of the United States, size 
five by seven feet, may be obtained for one dol- 
lar upon application to Superintendent of Docu- 
ments, Government Printing Office, Washington, 
D. C. This should be hung on the wall of the 
Sunday-school room. Upon this map should be 
marked the field in which the Sunday-school mis- 
sionary in whose support the school has taken a 
share, is at work. Or, if the school is having its 
offerings applied toward the organization and 
maintenance of mission Sunday schools, red or 
blue stars or seals should be affixed to show the 
location of these schools. The work should be 
remembered and referred to regularly in the open- 
ing exercises, and especially in prayers. There 
is a decided advantage in focusing the attention 
upon a specific object which stands as a type of 
the work of one of the missionary boards, and 
in keeping this before the school as a responsibil- 
ity which the school is expected to meet with un- 
failing regularity. 

LITERATURE 

The use of the leaflets published by the Boards 
which describe the work that is being done on 
various fields is earnestly recommended. The 
chairman of the Missionary Committee should 
establish communication with the headquarters 
of the Boards, and should ask for copies of such 
leaflets as they issue for free distribution, and 



12 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

order quantities of those that may be selected 
as being of special interest to the Sunday school 
for circulation among the pupils. This should be 
done at least three or four times a year. 



II 

STORIES FROM THE FIELD 

Note to the Leader: 

After the leader's introduction, the story for the week 
may be read by him, it may be told by some one se- 
lected for the purpose, or it may be recited as an 
impersonation. 



"AREN'T YOU THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
STARTER?" 

OPEN WITH PRAYER 

"Do you want a ride, mister ?" 

It was the piping voice of a little boy, and I 
turned to see who gave the Sunday-school mis- 
sionary such a cordial invitation. 

For more than a mile back, as I struggled over 
the road on a fourteen-mile walk, I had noticed 
some one coming. The rig had caught up to me 
at last. 

A little boy eleven years old was the driver of 
a poor horse hitched to a rickety wagon, carry- 
ing a milk can. 

I was glad to get a lift, for the road was long 
and heavy; it had been raining the night before. 

As I climbed into the wagon I took a look at 
the boy. He wore an old coat, many sizes too 
large for him, had long bushy hair and a dirty 
face, and two bright eyes. Altogether he had 
a wide-awake appearance. 

He looked at me and said, "Aren't you the Sun- 
day-school starter?" 

I confessed that I was, and then began to ask 
questions. 

"Aren't you a pretty small boy to carry milk 
to the creamery?" 

"No," he replied, "I have been doing this for 
over three years." 

"My, you are rather small to drive so far," I 
said. 

"I can do as much work as any man," he re- 

iS 



l6 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

plied. "I and my pa have done all of the haying 
this summer." 

I thought the boy must be either a remarkable 
worker or else the father was a very poor worker. 
The boy set me right by telling me that he did 
the loading and his father the pitching. 

Just then we passed a deserted farmhouse. 
Here were perhaps ten acres of cleared land. The 
boy said : "I and pa bought the hay on this place, 
too, and made it all alone. You see the four 
stacks of hay? I stacked them, and pa did the 
pitching." 

I asked the boy if he went to school. He said 
that he could not go to school. "I and pa have 
to hustle to pay the debts and make a living for 
the others," was his explanation. There were five 
children at home. 

Further conversation brought out the facts that 
he had never been to church or Sunday school, 
nor had any of the other members of the fam- 
ily, so far as he knew, for they had lived so far 
out in the woods that there was neither church 
nor Sunday school anywhere near his home. 

After visiting the people I found that the story 
the boy had told me was true, and I succeeded 
in organizing the first Sunday school in that re- 
gion. 

The report of the plan to organize a Sunday 
school reached the boy's home and Sunday 
brought them all out to the meeting. After the 
service, the boy came up and told me how many 
times he and the other members of the family 
had been out picking berries all day Sunday, and 
many other things about the conditions which 
had existed in that community. I had begun to 
doubt the wisdom of attempting to have a Sun- 
day school so far back in the woods and I feared 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 17 

it would die. But the boy's story only empha- 
sized the crying need of the community, so I de- 
cided to do my best to keep the Sunday school 
going. 

Thus the light of the gospel through the Sun- 
day school came into that community and to-day 
they have an organized church, a good Sunday 
school and an enthusiastic Christian Endeavor 
Society. 



HOW AUNT SYLVIA 

AND THE PREACHER HELPED THE 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

Scripture Selection: Acts 8:26-37 

"We don't want no new religion here." 

Many times that day the Sunday-school mis- 
sionary had heard those words as he called at the 
doors of the little negro cabins on a large planta- 
tion in Georgia, in the effort to interest them in 
a Sunday school. 

At length he was directed to call upon old Aunt 
Sylvia, a leader in the neighborhood, who in- 
formed him that the only religious services they 
had were the "big meetings held out of doors in 
summer." The missionary found Aunt Sylvia in- 
terested in religious things, however, and finally 
proposed that a Sunday school be organized, to 
meet in her house. This she at once refused to 
permit, saying that she was the "mother of Noah's 
Ark Baptist Church," and therefore could not con- 
sider such a proposal. 

The missionary then began a careful canvass 
of the entire neighborhood in search of some one 
to take the lead in conducting the Sunday school. 
Finalty he was directed to a "fine Baptist 
preacher" as being the man most likely to assist 
him. The missionary found him plowing, and after 
stating the object of his visit, he was informed 
that the man was not a "book-learnt preacher," 
but a "powerful Baptist gospel preacher." 

The^ plantation overseer interrupted their con- 
versation, attempting to drive the missionary 

18 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 19 

away, but he was not to be diverted so easily. 
He requested that he be permitted to help the 
preacher in his plowing. 

When the day's work was done the missionary 
accompanied the preacher to his humble home 
and, before retiring, asked him to read a portion 
of Scripture. He took up an old hymn book, in- 
stead of a Bible, opened it, and holding it up- 
side down, began to quote a passage of Scrip- 
ture as though he were reading it. 

By tactful reasoning the missionary finally suc- 
ceeded in securing the man's cooperation, and he 
promised to win Aunt Sylvia's assistance. 

The Sunday school was organized and met in 
Aunt Sylvia's little house. Boards were laid 
across chairs for seats, and at every meeting the 
room was overcrowded. Later a Presbyterian 
negro minister was assigned to preach occasion- 
ally for these people and the response was far 
beyond their highest hopes. 

The little company was soon compelled to move 
from Aunt Sylvia's home, and for some time the 
services were held in a bush arbor. From this 
beginning two good Presbyterian churches have 
grown, besides an academy where the boys and 
girls for miles around are being educated. 

Close with prayer that the light of the gospel may 
dispel the darkness of ignorance and superstition 
among our southern negroes. 



HOW THE MISSIONARY TOOK 
CHRISTMAS TO FAIRVIEW 

Leader: — Did you ever wonder what kind of 
Christmas some of the poor folks have out on 
the plains where it seldom rains, where the crops 
are so small that the people can hardly get a liv- 
ing, and where there are no evergreens to use 
for Christmas trees? A story comes to us from 
a Sunday-school missionary in western Kansas 
who was determined that some of the boys and 
girls from the little shacks and dugouts should 
have something to remind them of Christmas. 

"The most interesting position I have held dur- 
ing the past year was that of acting as a clearing 
house for Christmas/' the missionary tells us. 
"Christmas, in some parts of the pioneer west, 
where they had no crops and where there was 
nothing with which to provide any sort of Christ- 
mas, has been a heartbreaking time for some peo- 
ple. I knew about what sort of Christmas some 
of the folks would have. Before Christmas I told 
some of the Sunday schools that were better off 
about some of the others. They were anxious to 
help. The result was that real Christmas cheer, 
generous gifts and liberal treats were provided 
for about five hundred people of all ages who 
otherwise would have had little or nothing. 

"Let me tell the story of one of the Christmas 
entertainments which, with modification, is the 
story of the rest. 

"In the fall I was talking with one of our best 
superintendents out west who was greatly dis- 

20 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 21 

couraged. The trouble was that the people had 
no crops that year and were discouraged about 
everything. Just before Christmas I wrote this 
superintendent that I thought we could see the 
Sunday school through with a Christmas. I told 
him to start something the next Sunday, but not 
to tell our secret until he heard from me again. 

"The next Sunday he proposed that they pre- 
pare a program and get ready for Christmas. Not 
they! They didn't have anything for a Christ- 
mas and they didn't know where they could get 
anything. They were so blue and so hard up that 
they did not want even to consider Christmas. 
They finally did make a beginning, but very re- 
luctantly. 

"When they heard from me later they started 
with enthusiasm. They prepared a fine program. 
Over a hundred people, gathered from miles 
around, assembled in the little schoolhouse at the 
service, and all received a Christmas remem- 
brance. The house was decorated, but it was 
pathetic to see their Christmas tree — a little tree 
with limbs bare of leaves, around which they 
wrapped white cloth. They hung as many of the 
presents on this as possible. Gifts and treats were 
sent to thirty people who could not be present. 

"Wasn't it worth while, to drive out the blues 
and bring in Christmas cheer? 

"But this is not all. Shortly after, the superin- 
tendent wrote me that more people were coming 
to Sunday school than before Christmas. A little 
later he wrote me that still more were coming. 
Later another letter said, 'There were more than 
fifty out last Sabbath.' The help we gave them 
at Christmas time had put heart into them and 
they had taken a new grip on things and were 
coming and enthusiastic. The whole atmosphere 



22 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

of the neighborhood had changed. Wasn't it 
worth while?" 

Leader: — Could not our Sunday school help 
a poor little mission school, somewhere, to 
have a Christmas this year? How many would 
like to help pack a box of Christmas toys and 
dolls and warm caps and mittens, and other use- 
ful things, to send to a Sunday-school mission- 
ary? (Call for raised hands.) Very good; then 
bring your gifts, however small, not later than 
the last Sabbath in November, and we shall send 
them off in time to give a real Christmas treat to 
children who do not have the good things that 
we enjoy in such abundance. 

Prayer. 

Note: Write to the Sabbath-School and Missionary 
Department, Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia, Pa., 
for the name and address of a Sunday-school mission- 
ary who will distribute your gifts among those who are 
needy and who will report to you how they were re- 
ceived. 



HE WALKED ONE HUNDRED AND 
FIFTY MILES TO PREACH 

OPEN WITH PRAYER 

Leader: — What is a Sunday-school missionary? 
He is the gospel pioneer. He penetrates to the 
remotest parts, reaching the settlements back 
from the main lines of travel, far removed from 
railroads, where people are living in loneliness 
and spiritual destitution. 

One of these missionaries, working in the east- 
ern part of the State of Washington, has had 
strange experiences. Let him tell us of some of 
them in his own words : 

"It was a most unusual event to the people of 
an isolated mining camp when a preacher, the 
Sunday-school missionary, turned up in a cer- 
tain mining town. Politics and ore rested awhile 
in the hotels, saloons and lounging places, to dis- 
cuss the preacher. Certainly they were going to 
'turn out' to hear the parson. There was no need 
of coaxing and wheedling people into service in 
this mountain neighborhood. All that was nec- 
essary was to pass the word along the line. And 
along it was passed from bar to bar, from shack 
to shack. So welcome was the preacher visitor 
that night that the Odd Fellows, who were to 
hold their annual memorial service, kindly gave 
up service and hall in order that the camp might 
hear the parson. Yes, better still, two of the 
bars closed and the bartenders attended service. 

"In one of the large lumber camps I visited, it 
was my unusual privilege to persuade the 'boys' 

23 



24 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 



to give up the Saturday night dance so that the 
late hours would not interfere with the Sabbath 
service. This indeed is a rare instance of sacri- 
fice, especially where dancing is the rage and the 
only recreation. And yet this sacrifice is easily 
accounted for in their desire to hear the gospel. 
It did one good to see these hardy men of the 
forest take their lanterns that night and trudge 
through the woods in slush and mud to tell the 
fiddlers not to come to the hall that night, as 
there was going to be preachin' to-morrow, and 
a crowd there was on the morrow. All the 
benches of the mess house were taken to the hall 
and filled to the jamming point, and many peo- 
ple looked in through the windows. It was in- 
deed a red-letter day for the women and children 
of the camp, for a Sunday school was organized 
and the jacks or the bohunks, as they are called, 
bought and paid for the Sunday-school hymn 
books that night. 

"O how great the need of the Sunday school 
in this camp and scores of others just like it! 
Would that I could minister to such places more 
often !" 



HOW A SUNDAY-SCHOOL QUARTERLY 
BROUGHT HIM BACK 

OPEN WITH PRAYER 

Leader: — Can you imagine what it means to 
a person who has lived for a number of years 
far away from all his relatives and friends, to 
receive a message or a reminder of some sort as- 
suring him that he is not forgotten? It brings 
back a flood of recollections of former days; and 
it shortens the distance between him and his 
loved ones. I wonder if we can appreciate the 
loneliness of some of the people who have gone 
into the remote rural districts of some of the 
western states, many of whom never hear from 
their old homes back East, and who feel that they 
have been completely forgotten? 

I have here a book called "By-Products of the 
Rural Sunday School/' which tells us, among 
many other interesting things, how our Sunday- 
school missionaries are reaching many of these 
people, bringing new hope and cheer into their 
lives by making them feel that some one does 
care for them and is interested in their welfare. 
Here is a specimen of the good things which this 
book contains: 

"One of these missionaries in traveling over a 
section of country where he had been obliged to 
walk more than one hundred miles, saw a man 
some distance away slowly making his way down 
the rocky trail, leading his horse. As he came 
nearer, the missionary greeted him, calling him 

25 



26 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

by name, having seen it on the letter box which 
he had passed a short while before. He seemed 
startled and yet pleased at being addressed by a 
stranger. The missionary then introduced him- 
self. He found that the man was interested in 
better things. He said he had always attended 
Sunday school and church when he was 'at home 
in New York and Philadelphia.' He had home- 
steaded, and 'up there over the ridge' he was try- 
ing to build a home. His father had come out to 
live with him, but ill health overtook him, and he 
died. This man had been his father's nurse and 
undertaker. He had laid his companion to rest 
among the rocks of that isolated homestead. 'Yes, 
it gets lonely sometimes,' he said, but a smile 
crossed his lips as he changed his narrative. T 
had a strange thing happen to me the other day/ 
he continued. 'I came down for my mail and some 
one had sent me a magazine. It had a sphinx head 
on the cover. I opened it and found it was a Sun- 
day-school Quarterly. Don't you know it sort of 
got me for a few minutes. We fellows out here get 
careless and forget about Sunday — and I guess 
everything else that's good. I had not been read- 
ing my Bible. Well, it brought back to my mem- 
ory those dear old days in New York when I 
used to be a regular attendant at church and 
Sunday school. How did they know I was out 
here and lonely? How did they find out 
about me? I tell you I thought I was for- 
gotten — but some one must have cared. It 
helped me to get back into a little different way 
of living.' It was this very missionary to whom 
he was talking who had mailed the Quarterly 
to him." 

This book will be lent to the first one who asks 
for it after the school is dismissed to-day. It 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 27 

will be added to our Sunday-school library and 
every member of the school ought to read it. It 
is full of stirring stories of frontier life and ex- 
periences. 



THE SKY PILOT WHO COULD NOT BE 
FRIGHTENED 

The Sunday-school missionary was visiting a 
remote neighborhood known as Three Creeks, 
back in the frontier regions of Idaho, which, un- 
til recently, had been inhabited almost exclusively 
by cattlemen. He called upon all the families 
within a radius of ten miles, inviting them to at- 
tend a gospel service at the schoolhouse. They 
all seemed glad to have the opportunity to hear 
the missionary and promised to come. Some 
cowboys, however, who heard of the proposed 
meeting, determined that they would break it up. 
They said they didn't want any sky pilots in that 
neck of the woods. 

They had secured a jug of whisky from one 
of the freighters and were preparing for trouble. 
They ran their horses up and down past the 
roadhouse, playing the cowboy, whooping and 
firing their revolvers, and making their boast of 
what they were going to do that evening to the 
Sky Pilot. Several of the people warned the mis- 
sionary that they were going to make trouble and 
told him how they were going to shoot out the 
lights, break up the meeting, and run the Sky 
Pilot out of town. 

The missionary went to the schoolhouse about 
seven o'clock. People were beginning to gather, 
coming in wagons and on horseback. By eight 
o'clock every seat in the little schoolhouse was 
occupied. The cowboys were there; a few were 
standing in the rear of the room, while others 

28 






STORIES FROM THE FIELD 29 

were outside of the door. They sang several of 
the old familiar hymns, and the missionary invited 
everyone to help in the singing. He saw some of 
the cowboys singing, too. He prayed for them, 
and when he closed his prayer he saw that some of 
them were impressed. As he went on with his ad- 
dress, which was directed especially to them, they 
watched him closely. He saw that they were be- 
coming more and more interested, and before he 
was through it was evident there would be no 
disturbance. At the close of the service many 
pressed around him to express their gratitude. 
The mother of a large family said, "We have 
lived here sixteen years and this is the first gos- 
pel service we have had." A boy more than fif- 
teen years of age said, "I have lived here all my 
life; we have never had Sunday school and I 
didn't know what Sunday school was." 

The next day the leader of this band of cow- 
boys came to the missionary, humbly apologized 
for their actions, begging the missionary to re- 
main with them and to conduct evangelistic serv- 
ices. During these meetings several of the cow- 
boys were led to accept Christ as their Saviour. 

Close with prayer for our Sunday-school missionaries 
who, in the face of discouragements, difficulties and 
hardships, are taking gospel privileges to those who 
are destitute in these far-distant places. 



WAITED THIRTY-THREE YEARS FOR 
THE MISSIONARY 

Scripture Selection: Psalm 72 

Leader: — Idaho is a frontier mission field. It 
contains single counties that are larger than some 
eastern states. The population is increasing rap- 
idly and hundreds of families may be found who 
are wholly destitute of any religious privileges. 
They are living in localities where churches could 
not be maintained, but where Sunday schools may 
be organized and successfully conducted, uniting 
the people for the common purpose of Bible study 
and the uplift of the moral and social ideals of 
the entire community. 

A Sunday-school missionary sends us an in- 
teresting story which illustrates a condition 
which he and other Sunday-school missionaries 
have frequently found in the course of their 
labors. 

"A year ago, I organized a school on one of 
my exploring trips where a ranchman, at whose 
home I stayed overnight, was indifferent toward 
anything religious. When leaving I went to his 
home to get my grip. He followed me in, and 
going to an old trunk he brought out an old 
leather-covered Bible and took from between its 
leaves a paper and handed it to me. It was his 
letter of dismission from his old church in 
Scotland to the Church in America. He had 
lived thirty-three years in that valley and this 
was the first gospel service held there in that 
period. 

30 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 31 

"A few weeks later, I received a letter from 
the superintendent of the school saying that this 
man was then teaching the Bible class. I visited 
that little school again this summer and received 
a warm welcome in the home of this ranchman. 
I found that the little school had continued every 
Sunday during the year and that its influence was 
far-reaching. There was no observance of the 
Sabbath in that valley on my first visit ; but this 
year for miles up and down, the people were at 
the service; in some cases the entire family, 
father, mother and children. The old ranchman 
had recently bought an automobile, and before 
the service he went ten miles down the valley 
and gathered seven or eight children and adults, 
brought them to the service, and took them home 
after the service was over." 

During the following winter this missionary 
was addressing the First Presbyterian Church in 
Boise, Idaho, and he referred to this little school. 
At the close of his address a young woman in 
the audience rose and asked permission to speak ; 
he at once recognized her as the young woman 
elected superintendent of the school. She cor- 
roborated what he had said. She had gone to 
Boise with a younger sister who wished to 
enter school there and had secured a posi- 
tion in one of the dry goods stores. Largely 
because of the instruction received in the 
little school in their country home, she and 
her sister were in the house of God that Sunday 
evening. 

Leader: — We who have all the advantages of 
church and Sunday school and Christian homes, 
ought to be sympathetic toward these people in 
the frontier regions of our own country ; and we 



32 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

ought to be glad for the opportunity of helping 
them by our gifts and our prayers. 

Close with prayer that means may be found to send 
more workers into such places, and that the boys and 
girls in these far-distant neighborhoods may be won 
to Christ and his service. 



8 

A RECRUIT FOR THE MINISTRY 

The Sunday-school missionary, weary and dis- 
couraged, after a canvass of a neighborhood that 
extended over a district one hundred miles square, 
drove to the door of a homesteader's shack seek- 
ing lodging for the night. He found that its only 
occupants were a father and his twelve-year-old 
boy. In all the homes he had visited he had 
found but one mother who wanted the Sunday 
school. He was discouraged, but not defeated. 
That night as he thought of the boys and girls 
growing up in those prairie homes without the 
knowledge of God and his Word, he determined 
to organize a Sunday school even if he could get 
only a few of them to attend. 

In the morning he announced to the father that 
he had determined to attempt the organization 
of a Sunday school and that for that purpose he 
would hold a gospel service on the following 
Tuesday night. 

On the evening appointed, the twelve-year-old 
son of the house was the first to reach the school- 
house. He attended regularly as pupil for three 
years, and then became a teacher of a class of 
boys. Soon afterwards he was elected superin- 
tendent. 

About two years ago he went to Montana to 
visit a brother who was holding down a claim. 
While there, he gathered a small company around 
him each Sabbath and talked to them about the 
Sunday-school lesson, sometimes having as many 
as forty people present. His work soon devel- 

33 



34 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

oped into a Sunday school and, not long after- 
wards, a minister came to preach to the people. 
The young man did the work of a missionary 
among the people, and he is now looking for- 
ward to going into the ministry, to which he 
feels that the Lord has called him. 



THE GOSPEL IN MANY LANGUAGES 
Scripture Selection: Psalm 119 : 130 

Leader : — It is related of Dr. Goodell that when, 
in 1832, he was passing through Nicodemia, hav- 
ing no time to stop, he left with a stranger a 
copy of "The Dairyman's Daughter," in the 
Armenian-Turkish language. Seventeen years 
afterwards he visited Nicodemia, and found a 
church of more than forty members, and a Prot- 
estant community of more than two hundred per- 
sons. That tract, with God's blessing, did the 
work. 

In like manner it has been found that the most 
effective way of evangelizing and Americanizing 
our large immigrant people who speak languages 
different from ours, is to give them the gospel 
by distributing Bibles, tracts and other religious 
literature in their native tongue among them. 

The Waldensian Church in Italy which, as Mil- 
ton says, 

"... Kept God's truth so pure of old 
While all our fathers worshiped stocks and 
stones," 

was able to maintain the light of the gospel burn- 
ing in the Middle Ages through the work of its 
colporteurs, who let the Word of God do the work 
which no preacher was allowed to do at that time. 
Whittier, in the immortal lines of his "Vaudois 
Teacher," well describes both their method and 
the results: 

35 



36 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

Have the following recited by a member of the 
school: 

THE VAUDOIS TEACHER 

O lady fair, I have yet a gem which a purer 

lustre flings, 
Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown 

on the lofty brow of kings ; 
A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose 

virtue shall not decay, 
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee and a 

blessing on thy way ! 

The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow, as 

a small and meagre book, 
Unchased with gold or gem of cost, from his 

folding robe he took ! 
"Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price, may it 

prove as such to thee ! 
Nay — keep thy gold — I ask it not, for the Word 

of God is free !" 

The hoary traveler went his way, but the gift 
he left behind 

Hath had its pure and perfect work on that high- 
born maiden's mind, 

And she hath turned from the pride of sin to 
the lowliness of truth, 

And given her human heart to God in its beau- 
tiful hour of youth ! 

Leader: — The same method is being employed 
to-day. Colporteurs or "Bible-men" are being 
sent out as missionaries to visit among their fel- 
low countrymen, distributing Bibles, Testaments 
and other religious books and leaflets in various 
languages. The report of one year's effort shows : 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 37 

1. Forty-five thousand families visited with the 
gospel message. 

2. Twenty thousand Bibles, Testaments and 
other religious books distributed by sale or gift, 
in at least twenty different languages. 

In addition, our Sabbath-School Board is pub- 
lishing six weekly religious papers published 
throughout the year in Bohemian, Hungarian, 
Italian, Polish and Ruthenian. One million copies 
of these papers are distributed each year besides 
eight hundred and fifty thousand Bible picture 
cards containing the gospel story printed on the 
back of each card. These cards were published 
in Bohemian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Ruthen- 
ian and Spanish. 



10 

AMONG THE GOLD SEEKERS 

After a thirty-mile ride through the rolling, 
sagebrush country, the Sunday-school mission- 
ary reached a new mining camp. About one 
hundred and forty tents were already up. About 
three hundred men were on the ground, and the 
country for miles around had been staked off in 
mining claims. The missionary secured a bed in 
the only hotel in town, a tent twelve by sixteen 
feet and with accommodations for five guests. 

A saloon was kindly offered the missionary for 
the first church service, but a larger place was 
found, a tent used by the lumber company for 
storing hay and grain. The bales of hay were 
arranged about the walls of the tent and made 
very comfortable seats. The sacks of grain were 
piled to the peak of the tent, making a comfort- 
able gallery in which twenty young men sat. 

A violin teacher from Kansas City volunteered 
to assist with the music. The only violin in camp 
was secured. 

Some of the young men felt the need of a 
church bell. Going to the store they secured a 
piece of drill steel about ten feet long. A piece 
of wire was attached to each end. Two men held 
the bar while a third hammered on the middle 
of it with an ax. The noise sounded like a dozen 
church bells. Soon, from all directions, the peo- 
ple began to come; soon the tent was crowded. 
More than eighty persons were there. 

As the missionary, the violinist and the leader 
of the singing entered the tent, they were greeted 

38 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 39 

with a hearty round of applause, the customary 
greeting on social occasions in mining camps 
when the violinist appears. 

A minute later the company was standing and 
reverently singing "Praise God from whom all 
blessings flow." No nonsense now ! Every head 
was reverently bowed during the invocation. The 
service was begun. For fifteen minutes they sang 
such hymns as "Joy to the world ! the Lord is 
come," "Abide with Me, fast falls the eventide," 
"Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear." There was 
an hour of reverent worship. 

Monday morning a choice piece of land was 
given by the town-site company, one block from 
the proposed business center of town. The sage- 
brush was cut from the lot and a sign put up in- 
dicating the probable site of a Presbyterian 
church. 

Close with prayer. 



11 

THE RETURNED EMIGRANT 
A MISSIONARY 

Scripture Selection: Ecclesiastes n :6 

A returned emigrant from America, who had 
been converted in a New York mission, brought 
some relatives and friends together and told them 
of New York. He said: 

"I learned that the priests cannot send you to 
hell or forgive your sins. Jesus only can do 
that; it says so here in this Bible, which is the 
same as the priests have, but will not let you 
have." 

Then, for some time, he explained portions from 
the Bible to his neighbors as best he could. 
Finally the parish priest, in self-defense, was 
forced to read from the Bible and preach from 
it on Sunday, a thing seldom done in Italian 
Roman Catholic churches. Some time ago, a 
Waldensian missionary came that way, and found 
an audience of over three hundred eager to hear 
him expound the Bible further. Many were con- 
verted, and the work is still going on. 

This is an illustration of the widespread influ- 
ence of the missionary efforts that are being put 
forth in America for the evangelization of the 
foreign immigrants. 

Recently a Bohemian who had purchased a 
Bible from one of our Bohemian colporteurs be- 
came so deeply interested that he purchased two 
more copies to send to relatives in his native 
town. These people are in darkness because they 
have been denied access to the Word of God. 

40 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 41 

Let us include the immigrant in our prayers and 
let us try to develop a sympathetic attitude to- 
ward him and his needs. If we extend to him the 
hand of Christian brotherliness, he will be a good 
American. Shall we not make a beginning here 
in our own town, by doing something for the for- 
eigners who are living among us? 

Prayer for the success of the efforts of our missionary 
colporteurs who are taking the gospel to the foreigners 
in America, in their native tongues. 



12 

MISSIONARY HEROES IN AMERICA 

Scripture Selection: Acts 20:17-24 

We have a splendid illustration of self-sacrifice 
in service for Jesus in the lives of our pioneer 
Sunday-school missionaries. These men endure 
hardships which can only be borne by those who 
have reposed their entire confidence in Him. 

One of these missionaries was visiting a log- 
ging camp in northern Wisconsin. Traveling all 
day, without an opportunity to satisfy his hunger, 
he reached his destination at seven o'clock in the 
evening after a long, rough ride over a frozen 
roadway. He waited for two hours in the little 
log schoolhouse in zero weather until the people 
gathered for the meeting. Then, to a crowded 
house, eager for the gospel message, he preached 
the Word. 

Going to the home of one of the settlers to 
spend the night, he was given the best they had 
to offer, a bunk on the floor in the lean-to of the 
one-room log house where the father, mother and 
six children also slept on the floor. 

The next day he held three services, one in the 
Norwegian language, and then tramped for miles 
through the woods to his next appointment. 

This missionary has sixty mission stations un- 
der his care to which he is the only visiting min- 
ister. 

The day of missionary heroes has not passed. 
Here in our own land we may find many examples 
of self-denial in the Master's service. May they 
lead us to be more willing to make sacrifices in 
promoting the Master's kingdom ! 

42 



13 

ONLY TEN PER CENT IN SUNDAY 
SCHOOLS 

Leader: — How would you like to live in a 
neighborhood where there were neither churches 
nor Sunday schools? Would such a neighbor- 
hood be likely to produce men and women of 
strong character who would be useful citizens? 
Strange as it may seem, there are many places 
in our land where the people are just as ignorant 
of the Bible and its truths as though they lived 
in the darkness of a heathen country. What may 
we expect of the boys and girls who live in such 
places? 

While we are thinking about them, let us sing 
two stanzas of "Rescue the Perishing." 

The following paragraph may be read or repeated 
from memory by the Leader or some one chosen for 
this part. 

In the mountains of our Southland we find 
thousands of boys and girls who are growing into 
manhood and womanhood without the refining 
and uplifting influence of Bible instruction. Word 
comes to us describing the condition of five moun- 
tain counties in Tennessee with a population of 
fifty-two thousand, less than one tenth of whom 
have ever attended a Sunday school. 

Very little of this section, except the county 
towns, have regular preaching. Poverty and 
spiritual destitution prevail everywhere. The 
white population is of North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia ancestry, and is engaged exclusively in lum- 

43 



44 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

bering and agricultural pursuits. The soil is thin 
except the creek and bottom lands, yet a fair sub- 
sistence is derived from the farms, although the 
methods of farming are old-fashioned. This sec- 
tion has no railroads and the public highways are 
very muddy in winter, but fairly good in sum- 
mer and fall. 

It is not uncommon to find families of from 
seven to eleven in a single home, and not a Chris- 
tian among them. Many boys and girls from five 
to twelve years old are found who never heard a 
prayer or attended a religious service of any kind. 
They are a people of strong natural endowments, 
frugal and industrious. The state provides only 
eighty days of free school annually. The aver- 
age daily attendance is fifty-three per cent out of 
a school population of nineteen thousand three 
hundred and ten. Of this number only seven hun- 
dred and forty-seven pupils in all five counties 
are higher than the fifth grade. 

Practically the only social life known in this 
section is "Sunday singing." The people meet 
and spend the entire day, with dinner on the 
ground, in singing and social fellowship. The 
meetings are held in groves and schoolhouses, as 
there are few church buildings. 

The only religious workers outside the county 
towns are occasional circuit riders and a few old- 
time preachers of a bygone generation who boast 
of their lack of "book larnin' " and that texts for 
the day's sermon "pop" into their minds "jest as 
they walked up the steps." 

There are large neighborhoods where not over 
three or four are church members. 

Here is a field with no standard of life worthy 
of our race, decaying and starving spiritually for 
lack of the uplift and inspiration which the gos- 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 45 

pel gives to men and communities. Here lie 
buried the social, intellectual and spiritual forces 
only waiting to be awakened from their long 
slumber into quickening power by the Word of 
God. 

. Leader: — Let us remember in our prayers the 
neglected boys and girls of the southern moun- 
tains to-day. Will Mr. lead us? 






14 

MISSIONARY SCOUTS AND PIONEERS 

Leader: — We have all read the thrilling stories 
of the early settlers of our country, and we al- 
ways like to hear about the experiences of pio- 
neer days. We look upon these sturdy pioneers as 
the people who have developed the vast stretches 
of territory in the West which now bear rich har- 
vests of grain, with thriving towns and cities as 
centers of commercial enterprise. 

Here is a book called "On the Firing Line," 
which tells us in a most interesting way, the story 
of the gospel pioneers, known as the Sabbath- 
school missionaries, who, for more than a quar- 
ter of a century have been following these new 
settlers as they penetrated farther and farther 
into the interior, taking the Word of God to them 
in their new homes and establishing Sunday 
schools for their children. The experiences of 
some of these men as related in this book form 
one of the most interesting chapters of mission- 
ary endeavor. 

I shall read a few paragraphs from it: 

"I visited a town with three hundred people 
that never had a Sunday school or church of any 
kind, but they did have seven saloons. When I 
saw the boys rolling beer kegs across the street 
and into the saloons, I shuddered to think of their 
future. 

"I visited the business men and explained my 
mission. They agreed that I could not do any- 
thing there. One gentleman took me aside and 

46 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 47 

said, 'I would dislike very much to see you leave 
town discouraged, so in my judgment the best 
thing for you to do is to leave town before you 
undertake to do anything.' I told him I would 
stay and fight it out. 'If you feel that way about 
it,' he said, 'you can depend on me, and I will do 
all I can to help you/ 

"We secured a place in which to hold a meet- 
ing, the hour of service was set, the homes, places 
of business and saloons included were visited and 
all invited to attend the service. After doing all 
this I felt that one thing more must be done to 
stir the people. So I took my stand on the street 
corner between two saloons and sang a gospel 
song. Then I invited all present to attend the 
meeting. The meeting was held. The attend- 
ance was not large, but we advertised services to 
continue every night for the remainder of the 
week. 

"The next day when visiting the homes, I was 
passing the blacksmith shop. I saw that the 
blacksmith could not hope to attend to the wants 
of all who were gathered there. They were quar- 
relling among themselves as to who should have 
first attention. Seeing my opportunity, I stepped 
up to the smith and offered to help him. 'Are 
you a blacksmith?' he asked. 'Yes/ I said. 'But 
you will soil your hands and clothing/ he urged. 
'Never you mind that/ I replied, 'give me an 
apron and I will help you out.' He did so, and 
I stepped to an idle forge, built a fire and soon 
I was turning out work with the greatest ease 
and pleasure. 

"I think it would be safe to say that before 
evening every man in town came as far as the 
door of the shop. That night the congregation 
more than doubled, and we had — what we did not 



48 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

have at the first service — a goodly number of men. 
Services were continued every night of the week 
with increasing interest. 

"On Sunday morning we met in the school- 
house for another service, and then the first Sun- 
day school in the town was organized. In the 
early winter a series of meetings was held in 
which a number were converted, a church was 
organized, and steps were taken to build a 
church." 

Leader: — This was the experience of a Min- 
nesota missionary who has done a great work 
among the mining and lumber camps in the north- 
ern part of that state. 

This book contains many other interesting 
stories. It is in our Sunday-school library and 
the first one who calls for it at the close of the 
session to-day may have it to read during this 
week. Some other member of the school will be 
asking for it next week, so the one who is for- 
tunate enough to get it to-day should be sure to 
return it on the coming Sunday. 



15 



A WILD MOUNTAIN BOY BECOMES A 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

Leader: — You have all heard of the boy who 
was raised in the southern mountains who learned 
to read by the light of the burning logs in the 
open fireplace, and who became one of the great- 
est and best beloved of the Presidents of the 
United States. Who was he? Why was Abra- 
ham Lincoln a great man? 

To-day we are to hear about a mountain boy 
who was notoriously wild and bad, but who be- 
came, under the transforming power of God's 
Spirit, a mighty force in leading others to Christ. 

One Sabbath night a company of mountain 
boys made their way to the little schoolhouse on 
the hillside near Clear Creek, where the Sunday- 
school missionary was holding a series of revival 
meetings. These boys did not come because they 
were interested in the gospel message of the mis- 
sionary; they cared nothing for such things. At 
the close of the service, however, when the Bible 
teacher asked all who wanted Christ as their 
Saviour to rise, they were surprised to see one 
of their number stand up with a look of deter- 
mination and say, "I do want to accept Christ, 
but it 'pears like sumthin' just keeps a holdin' of 
me back." But on the third Sunday afternoon, 
in spite of the jeers of the boys, he stayed after 
Sunday school to seek the Lord. He had waited 
for that "quawr feelin'," the assuring experience 
of the mountaineer, but finally came just as he 
was, took Christ at his word, and soon was prais- 

49 



S o SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

ing God for saving his soul. At once he was filled 
with an overwhelming desire to know the Word 
of God and teach it. He said, "I want to get an 
education so that I can teach the true Word of 
God." He was given a class of boys in the Sun- 
day school and labored earnestly for the salvation 
of each of them. He learned to read chiefly from 
the Bible, spelling out the words as he went 
along. He worked at logging with an elder 
brother and two other wild fellows who tried in 
every way to get him to swear, to drink, or in 
some way to "break over," but the Lord kept 
him. 

Later he went to live with an uncle in Illinois, 
but before going he visited every home in that 
part of Clear Creek Valley, begging unsaved 
ones to accept Christ. From Illinois he wrote: 
"My uncle and aunt is awful kind to me. They 
didn't have nary Bible in their house when I 
came here. Uncle is a sinner, but she belongs 
to the Church. I am going to try awful hard to 
get uncle to give his self to the Lord. There has 
been just one meeting here since I came, and I 
get so lonesome when I can't 'tend meeting and 
Sunday school." But he went to work, and soon 
he wrote, "Well, we've got a prayer meeting 
started up here and a Sunday school, and I am a 
teacher." 

During this period, he attended a meeting of 
the Winona Assembly, working his way by wait- 
ing on the table and pumping the organ. At the 
close of an address by that eminent Bible ex- 
positor, Rev. J. G. Cunningham, D.D., of Edin- 
burgh, Scotland, this mountain boy came for- 
ward and said to him, "I hope some day to stand 
on the platform and teach the people the Word 
of God, just like you." Later, he entered Moody 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 51 

Bible Institute, where he studied nearly two 
years. Then he became a Sunday-school mis- 
sionary. 

This poor mountain boy, now an efficient Sun- 
day-school missionary, has organized scores of 
Sunday schools, has brought thousands of moun- 
tain boys and girls under Bible instruction, has 
won a multitude of souls to Christ, and has been 
the means of developing a number of Presby- 
terian churches. 

Close with prayer for the boys and girls in the little 
cabins in our southern mountains who are without the 
opportunity of Christian instruction and training. 



16 

OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES 
IN ORGANIZING SUNDAY SCHOOLS 

Leader: — Here is a book which contains some 
of the best missionary stories I have ever read. 
It is called "Planting the Outposts/' and is 
written by Robert F. Sulzer, the veteran 
pioneer Sunday-school missionary. It is the 
record of his own experiences in this form 
of missionary work in Iowa, Minnesota, and 
North Dakota. 

Some of his stories, while they touch our sym- 
pathies because of the conditions they depict, are 
very amusing by reason of Mr. Sulzer's unique 
manner of telling them. I will read you an in- 
cident; then the book will be lent to the first 
member of the school applying for it after Sun- 
day school closes. Be sure to return it next Sab- 
bath so that others may have it. 

He is telling about a new community which 
he had heard was without a Sunday school. He 
says : 

"I reached the town at daybreak, and as I went 
up the street I saw people peeping out of the 
windows from behind the curtains; evidently 
they were wondering what stranger was wander- 
ing around. I visited every house in town and 
invited them out to a meeting that night, and 
then visited for three or four miles out from the 
town, and all I saw promised to be present. 

"When I reached the town again, just at meet- 
ing time in the evening, the schoolhouse was 

52 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 53 

locked and I had to find the school-teacher in 
order to get the key. Then I found her kindling 
wood and built a fire, but when I attempted to 
light the lamps I found there were none to light. 
I went to a neighbor's and borrowed a lamp and 
I set it on the desk. By this time it was nearly 
nine o'clock. I looked up the street and down 
the street, but saw no one coming. 

"I waited a while, then took the front seat. And 
I kept on sitting there. Then I had a song serv- 
ice all to myself, and then I sat there some more. 
Then I had a prayer meeting. And still I sat 
there. By and by one of my German friends 
opened the door and I invited him in to help me 
sit there. After a while the door opened and 
eight or ten young people came — I suppose sim- 
ply to see me sit there. When they sat down 
near the door I took the lamp and put it near 
them. 

"I didn't have enough light to read the Scrip- 
tures by, but I quoted some the best I knew how 
and sang hymns that I knew, and by the time 
I had given a gospel talk I had a fair audience, 
as the people gradually came in. I talked Sun- 
day school and took a vote, then I made a mo- 
tion and seconded it, put the question and I voted 
for it. Next I called for nomination for super- 
intendent. No one said a word, so I nominated 
a certain man. I seconded the motion and then 
I elected him myself. I filled the rest of the 
offices in the same way. After I had elected the 
officers I asked the people to suggest a time for 
meeting the next Sunday. Again there was 
silence, so I moved that we meet at three 
o'clock. Then I seconded the motion, and voted 
'Aye.' 

"It was about eleven o'clock when we got 



54 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 



through with the meeting. No one asked me to 
go home with him, so I was left alone." 

This is only a part of the story; you will find 
the remainder in Mr. Sulzer's book on page 70. 
There are many more stories just as interesting. 






17 

THE COWBOY WHO BECAME A 
PREACHER 

Scripture Selection: Hebrews 4 : 12 

Leader: — In our pioneer Sunday-school work 
we see the truth of these words emphasized. To- 
day we have an interesting story from an Idaho 
Sunday-school missionary which shows the 
power of God's Word in convicting men of sin 
and leading them to Christ: 

"Some time ago I visited a new frontier set- 
tlement/' says the missionary, "where the saloons 
seemed to be in full control. The town had been 
'shot up' on several occasions by drunken cow- 
boys. A small building had just been erected 
for school and church purposes ; there were two 
or three Christian families in the community that 
were hoping for the time to come when they could 
have Sunday school and occasional preaching 
service. We held a few meetings and organized 
a Sunday school. Early one morning a man who 
conducted one of the stores, and who was inter- 
ested in our meetings, went to the depot to in- 
quire about some goods he was expecting. As 
he turned to go back to his place of business he 
saw two young men dressed in cowboy attire sit- 
ting on the depot steps. He stepped up to them 
and inquired if they would be in town overnight. 
The larger of the two replied that they came in 
yesterday from the cattle ranch, that they had 
spent all night in the saloons, and that they might 
go back that day and might not for two or three 
days. 

55 



5 6 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

" 'Well, boys/ said he, 'if you are in town to- 
night come up to the little chapel yonder. We 
are having gospel services there every night, the 
first we have ever had in this part of the coun- 
try, and everybody is coming. Where will you 
be this evening at 7:30?' 

" 'If in town, likely in the saloon,' said the cow- 
boy. 

"That evening before service the missionary 
went to the saloon and found them. 

" 'Now, boys/ said he, 'I have come after you, 
and I want you to come with me to the service/ 

"They tried to excuse themselves by saying 
that they had nothing but the cowboy clothing 
that they had on, and could not go in that con- 
dition. 

" 'Never mind your clothes/ said the business 
man. 'Throw off your cartridge belts and put 
your guns behind the bar, and come as you are; 
you will be welcome/ 

"I shall never forget that evening when that 
man came into the little chapel with the two cow- 
boys, taking a seat by their side on one of the 
wooden benches in the rear of the room. 

"As I preached that night I prayed. The older 
cowboy was restless at first; but soon after I 
began my address he turned his eyes upon me 
and never took them off until I was through. At 
the close of my address I saw that he was deeply 
interested and greatly agitated, and when I gave 
the invitation to all who would forsake their evil 
way and confess the Lord Jesus Christ as their 
Saviour from sin, a number arose. Among the 
first to stand was this cowboy. He came out from 
his seat and up the aisle to the platform and, with 
tears streaming down his cheeks, he put out his 
hand to me, saying, 'Parson, will you let me say 
a word?' 

"He turned to the audience and began to speak. 



STORIES FROM THE FIELD 57 

In a moment it was evident that he was an edu- 
cated young man ; his grammar was perfect. He 
told of his boyhood home and his past life; he 
was the only child of well-to-do parents in old 
New England. His parents had given him a fine 
education. He had graduated with high honors 
from one of our greatest eastern colleges. His 
parents wanted him to enter the ministry. 'But/ 
said he, 'I was never converted ; my heart turned 
away from the ministry, and soon after my grad- 
uation I ran away from home and came out to 
this western country, and for years I have ridden 
the range, and gone to the depths of sin. For 
five years I have not written my mother, and she 
doesn't know but w r hat her boy is dead/ 

"When he mentioned the name 'mother/ he 
broke down and cried, 'My God, have I killed my 
poor mother?' 

"I have witnessed many touching scenes in my 
twenty-eight years of pioneer mission life in this 
western country, but seldom have I witnessed a 
more touching scene than this. There wasn't a 
dry eye in that audience, and the Holy Spirit's 
power was wonderfully manifest. The cowboy 
fell on his knees in front of the platform, plead- 
ing with God for mercy, and asking forgive- 
ness. 

"The business man said to him, 'Come home 
with me to-night; I want you to spend the night 
with me/ 

" 'Thank you/ said the cowboy, 'but no sleep 
for me until I know if mother is alive. If mother 
is dead, I never can forgive myself. I have killed 
her. God has forgiven me, but I can never for- 
give myself if mother is dead/ 

"He went to the little station, and this message 
flashed over the wire to the old New England 



5 8 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

home: 'Your lost boy is found and saved. An- 
swer quickly. Charley.' 

"He walked the floor of the little station that 
night for the return message. About ten o'clock 
the next morning it came, and the first words ©f 
the message were these: 'Thank God, our boy 
still lives. Come home at once. Father, Mother/ 

"The next evening he came to the service nicely 
dressed. He brought with him to the service two 
young men, former companions whom he had 
helped to drag down in sin. 

'In the after service that evening, he gave a 
testimony of wonderful power, and, getting his 
two companions on their knees in prayer, he 
would not let them rise until he had led them to 
Christ. The third day he took the train for the 
old New England home. 

"He remained at home for some time, entering 
with all his heart and soul into Christian work, 
and later, carrying out the desire of his parents, 
he began to prepare for the ministry. Already 
he has been the instrument under God of leading 
many souls to Christ." 

That godless frontier village is to-day a pros- 
perous town of more than two thousand popula- 
tion, a peace-loving and God-fearing people. 
That little Sunday school has grown to a strong, 
self-supporting church, sending out beneficent 
rays of blessing throughout all that region of 
country. This is the result of a little Sunday 
school in a rural settlement. 

t Close with prayer for God's blessing upon our mis- 
sionary efforts to reclaim those who have strayed from 
the ways of righteousness. 



18 

ONE HUNDRED MILES FOR A 
PREACHER 

THE EXPERIENCE OF AN ARIZONA MISSIONARY 

I visited a town of four hundred people and 
could find no religious work of any kind in the 
town. I could not find an out-and-out Christian 
man or woman there. It was here that a cowboy 
was killed in a saloon brawl. His friends sent for 
the nearest preacher, one hundred miles away, but 
he could not come. 

Finally the nineteen-year-old girl who was 
there teaching was forced to conduct the funeral 
in order to give the Christian burial requested by 
his parents in the East. This she did in the 
dance hall, in the presence of a crowd of saloon 
keepers, gamblers, cowboys and scarlet women. 

In another town the only Christian woman to 
be found told me she had conducted fourteen 
funerals in twelve months, and that only two of 
those deceased had died a natural death. She 
said, "We have no use for God out here till we 
get sick or some one dies, and then we think of 
the God our mothers knew back East." 



59 



Ill 

FrPTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 
Prayer. 
Scripture Selection: — The Parable of the Sower. 

Luke 8:4-15. 
Hymn: — "Sowing in the Morning/' et cetera. 

Leader: — We are to consider to-day, the needs 
of a people who form ten per cent of the total 
population of the United States. Ten millions 
of negroes! And what are we doing for them? 
In various ways we are assisting them upward, 
providing them with churches and ministers, be- 
sides educating the boys and girls and teaching 
them useful trades. But before they can have 
churches, faithful work must be done in prepar- 
ing the ground and sowing the seed of the gospel, 
nourishing it until it comes to fruition in souls 
won to Christ and gathered into his Church and 
in boys and girls filled with the desire to go forth 
and help in uplifting others of their own race. 

After a brief prayer by Mr. , we are to 

hear from several persons who will tell us how 
this work of seed-sowing is being done. 

First Speaker — Progress Since Emancipation: 

During the years of his freedom, the negro 
has made remarkable progress. In 1863 there 
were in all the United States only a few farms 
controlled by negroes. They now operate in the 
South 890,140 farms. Of this number twenty- 
five per cent are owned by negroes, the remain- 
ing seventy-five per cent being operated under 
the tenant system. 

63 



64 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

When, at the close of the Civil War, the ne- 
groes started on their career as farmers, they had 
no land and no experience as farm owners or 
tenants; none of them became farm owners by 
inheritance, nor did any of them inherit money 
with which to purchase land. The fact that the 
relative number of owners among the negro 
farmers in the South is now more than one half 
as great as the relative number of owners among 
white farmers, makes a very commendable show- 
ing. The negroes of this country now own 20,- 
000,000 acres of land or 31,000 square miles. If 
all the land they own were in one place, its area 
would be greater than that of the State of South 
Carolina. In 1863 the total wealth of the ne- 
groes of this country was about $20,000,000. Now 
their total wealth is over $700,000,000. 

Second Speaker — Negro Education: 

One half of the negroes get no schooling what- 
ever. Careful analysis of the reports of state 
superintendents showing the attendance by 
grades, indicates that the average child, whites 
and blacks being* reckoned together, who attends 
school at all stops with the third grade. In 
North Carolina the average citizen gets only 2.6 
years; in South Carolina, 2.5 years; in Alabama, 
2.4 years of schooling, both private and public. 
In the whole South the average citizen gets only 
three years of schooling of all kinds in his en- 
tire life; and what schooling it is! This is the 
way we are educating these citizens of the Re- 
public, the voters who will have to determine the 
destinies not only of this people, but of millions 
of others beyond the seas. But why is it that the 
children get so little education? Have we no 
schools in the country districts? Yes, but what 






FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 65 

kind of schools? In these states, in schoolhouses 
costing an average of $275 each, under teachers 
receiving an average salary of $25 a month, we 
have been giving the children in actual attend- 
ance five cents' worth of education a day for but 
eighty-seven days in the year. 

Third Speaker — Religious Conditions: 

Among the negroes the word "destitute" often 
means a community with plenty of churches of 
different creeds, but without Sunday schools, 
church members with no conception of the real 
Christlike religion. While these churches in 
such communities are numerous, the pastors, as 
you can imagine, are inferior men. Anyone who 
sees that he can have a comparatively easy life 
by being called to preach, "hears the call," 
takes charge of the church and becomes the 
leader of the community, which will rise no 
higher than he. Often they are bad men at 
heart, very ungodly in conduct and totally 
ignorant. 

It is alarming to find so many homes without 
a Bible. No effort whatever is made to learn 
what God w 7 ould have them do. In one home the 
missionary inquired of the wife whether she had 
a Bible. She answered, "No." Glancing around, 
the missionary spied a Bible on the shelf, well 
covered with other books and papers, as well as 
dust. He asked about it and was promptly in- 
formed that it was a "Baptist Bible" and that it 
belonged to her husband ; but she was a Metho- 
dist and did not have a "Methodist Bible." 
The missionary was successful, after much 
discussion, in convincing her that the Bibles 
he carried were the same as the Bible on the 
shelf. 



66 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

Fourth Speaker — One Remedy: 

Many solutions have been offered for the so- 
called "negro problem. " Educational, intellectual 
and industrial plans are good and important, but, 
above all things, the negro must be taught the 
principles of true religion. This can most ef- 
fectively be done by the planting of mission Sun- 
day schools in which regular instruction in re- 
ligious truth may be given them. This work is 
being efficiently performed by our negro Sun- 
day-school missionaries. 

If a Sunday school is not practicable, the mis- 
sionary organizes a Home Department, where 
the Bible is regularly studied in the home. Each 
home is visited by the missionary, the home life 
and habits are studied, their mistakes are pointed 
out to them by the fireside, and suggestions as 
to a better way of rearing children, keeping the 
Sabbath and caring for a home are given; and 
in many cases immediate improvement has been 
seen. While the missionary is making his daily 
visits to the homes, he is not content to leave 
a tract or a Bible, but he is on the alert for 
promising young people, signs of whom are often 
hidden away under insufficient clothes or a cloud 
of ignorance. Many such young people are sent 
to school, and marvelous results have followed. 
The finding of one girl and putting her in school 
brought to a community a day school which for 
years it had been without, a Presbyterian church, 
the bringing of the whole family of twelve to 
Christ and a revolutionized community. 

Fifth Speaker — How the Work Is Done: 

The negro Sunday-school missionaries have 
some strange experiences. One of these work- 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 67 

ers says: "I have just organized a school in one 
of our famous turpentine districts. Out of more 
than thirty present, only two girls and one mar- 
ried woman could read. In the entire settlement 
of more than twenty-five families, only two men 
could read. Our organization was a success. We 
met in an empty shanty with one seat, which was 
made by taking a board out of the floor. This 
was soon filled, and many, old and young, had 
to be seated on the floor. The anxious faces of 
the children, beside the dissipated faces and blank 
expressions of the parents presented a most pa- 
thetic contrast. This is a bad community; on 
Sabbath they drink and gamble and fight all day. 
The people do not take to strangers at once, 
especially if they think they come to help them. 
This sounds strange, but it is true. I made three 
visits before I could get any attention whatever. 
On my fourth visit the people flocked around me 
for tracts, cards and papers, as if I were dis- 
tributing bread and meat for their bodies. " 

Sixth Speaker — More Experiences: 

Another missionary relates this incident: "I 
went fifteen miles through the country to Chats- 
worth, Georgia, and other sections of Murray 
County. My purpose was to look the field over 
and organize a Sunday school, if the way was 
clear. This section of Georgia is considered un- 
safe for colored strangers, but we went in God's 
name and came out unharmed. I found the peo- 
ple in very poor circumstances and in great need 
of both Sunday school and church. The boys 
and girls are growing up in sin, ignorance and 
superstition, and in great need of God's Word. 
Gathering the children together, I asked about 
Bible characters. After explaining the word 



68 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

'meek,' I asked, 'Who was the meekest man?' 
One answer was 'colored folks.' Several an- 
swers of this kind were given. When I told them 
Moses they were eager to know where he lived 
Some then thought that I referred to 'Uncle 
Moses, an old man in their community." 

Seventh Speaker— What Twenty-Five Dollars Will 
Do: 

"Little Edisto' Island, in South Carolina, has 
a population of five hundred colored families 
These people lived here for years, without any 
bunday school whatever, no services, no Bible 
training, no effort at a better life. Five hundred 
families without God ! Our missionary went to 
their rescue. He interested the white owner 
who consented to give the land for a building for 

f-. miSS1 5^ Sunday school > and to - da 7 a handsome 
little edifice stands open to these five hundred 
families with their little ones, where all day 
bunday they come and go to worship our Master 
Somebody s twenty-five dollars, given to organ- 
ize this Sunday school, changed the whole life 
of that little island." 

H y™ n: — "Hark the Voice of Jesus Crying" 
(Tune, Disciple.) & 






THE SOUTHERN MOUNTAINEERS 

In connection with this program it would be helpful 
to have a map sketched on the blackboard or on heavy 
paper, showing the states east of the Mississippi and 
south of the Mason and Dixon line. Begin with a brief 
description of the topography of the district on the 
eastern and western slopes of the Appalachian system, 
where the people whom we call the "southern moun- 
taineers" are found. 

Leader: — As we are to consider to-day a great 
mission field in our own America, and as the peo- 
ple we are to talk about are among the most 
loyal and patriotic Americans, it seems appro- 
priate that our opening hymn should be the one 
we all like to sing when we think about our love 
for our country and flag. What is this hymn? 
Yes, "America." Let us sing it from memory. 

Hymn:— "My Country, 'tis of Thee." (Tune, 
America.) 

Map Exercise: — The mountaineers present one 
of the most interesting mission studies in the 
homeland. They live on the hillsides and in the 
quiet valleys of the southern Appalachians, ex- 
tending through nine states from the southern 
border of Pennsylvania to the northern counties 
of Georgia and Alabama, covering a region about 
six hundred miles long and two hundred miles 
wide. In the more than two hundred counties in- 
cluded in this area about four millions of people 
are dwelling, a population seemingly large, but 
comparatively small, when the large territory is 
considered. 

69 



70 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

The tide of westward emigration flowed over 
the southern Appalachians, but ebbed away from 
them as the advancing flood flowed westward. 
Domestic emigration and foreign immigration 
alike pushed on toward the magic West. The 
Civil War served also to divert attention from 
the mountain ranges of the South. And so the 
nation went on about its toil and expansion, prac- 
tically oblivious of one of its most valuable pos- 
sessions. 

The mountaineer's horizon is limited by the 
summits that rise on every side, shutting him in 
from the rest of the nation and forcing him to 
find his world in his own small neighborhood. 

Scripture Lesson: — Isaiah, chapter 35. 

Leader: — The missionaries who come into the 
closest contact with these people and who know 
more about their home life, customs and religious 
tendencies, are our Sunday-school missionaries. 
They are constantly visiting them in their little 
cabin homes up and down the creeks and along 
the narrow valleys, organizing Sunday schools 
and bringing the opportunity of Bible study and 
instruction within their reach. Let us see how 
these men are doing this work. 

Without formal announcement, those who have been 
selected for the task recite or read the following para- 
graphs: 

A Journey With a Sunday-School Missionary 

Let us take a journey out through the country 
and visit some of these places, many miles away 
from the railroad, where the highways are al- 
most impassable, the streams unbridged, the 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 71 

school and church-houses in bad repair. The 
farms indicate that their owners have never heard 
of scientific farming. They still use the old- 
time implements and transact their business just 
as their forefathers did many years ago. Some- 
times we travel for miles without seeing a 
painted dwelling. The old-time spinning wheel 
and loom are still considered necessities in many 
places and sometimes occupy the larger part of 
the one-room dwelling where the family resides, 
cooks, eats, sleeps and entertains company. 
Night overtakes us, tired and hungry. We call 
at the fence of a cabin home, but we do not go in 
because the watchdog makes it unsafe for us to 
approach nearer without protection. Our call 
is answered, and we are cordially invited to enter 
in. The "Old man" and the "boys" have just 
returned from their day's labor, the "gals" are 
preparing supper, and the "old woman" sits in 
the corner smoking a cob pipe. We try to ap- 
pear as homelike and comfortable as possible, 
for it would not do to appear otherwise. Soon 
we are acquainted with the family and all seem 
delighted that we have stopped to spend the night 
with them. The supper is soon prepared and 
served. It consists of corn bread, hog meat, cof- 
fee, milk, butter, beans, potatoes and such like. 
They take us into their confidence and give us 
the story of what is going on in the commun- 
ity. The news they impart runs something like 
this: 

"Had preaching over at the schoolhouse last 
Sunday, and a man 'got drunk and painted the 
thing red.' A wildcat still was 'cut up' in the 
community the other night, and one of the neigh- 
bors arrested for making and selling whisky." 

So goes the conversation until late bedtime. 



72 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

Finally the beds are prepared, the lights are ex- 
tinguished and the whole family is in dreamland 
until about four o'clock in the morning, when we 
all arise, eat the hastily prepared breakfast, and 
after being cordially invited to stop again at any 
time, we are soon on our journey, while the 
night's lodging has cost us nothing but good 
wishes and a promise to "come again." 

Leader: — Having heard something about how 
these people live, let us look for a moment at 
their educational opportunities : 

Their Education: 

The opportunities for getting an education are 
small, but — with few if any books, and no papers 
— the demand for an education is smaller, for the 
mountaineer can hoe corn, trade horses and even 
preach without "larninV One such thus an- 
nounced his services, "Come to meetin' to-night; 
you'll hear the pure gospel, for the man who's 
goin' to preach hain't got a smidgen of larnin'." 

The whole country is divided into districts, 
and one-room schoolhouses are located at com- 
munity centers where "free schools" of short 
duration are taught in the fall of the year. The 
barefooted boys and girls from miles around as- 
semble at eight o'clock in the morning and spend 
the day more in play than study. The old log 
school house of twenty years ago, with a large 
fireplace in one end, a chink knocked out for a 
window, and backless split-log benches for desks 
is now almost a thing of the past; it is being 
rapidly replaced by better things. 

The one supreme incentive needed by these 
people is found in the Sunday school, which 
brings to the people the Bible and helps in its 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 



73 



study, giving both the ideal life and the impulse 
toward it. Everybody, old and young, attends 
the Sunday school. It restores the sanctity of the 
Sabbath, it stirs the people to search the Scrip- 
tures for themselves, to discover its truths and to 
apply these truths to their lives. Now that there 
is something in their hands to be read, many of 
the older people learn to read. As a result, the 
day schools have a larger and more regular at- 
tendance. For these better teachers are de- 
manded; the desire is for those who can help 
in the Sunday school. 

Now, in many places the "moonlight schools" 
are becoming popular and through this means 
many who previously have had no opportunity 
to obtain an education are learning at least to 
read and write. 

Leader: — Now we must not think of the moun- 
taineers as people who are without any knowl- 
edge of God or the Bible. On the contrary, they 
have a deep respect and reverence for the Bible 
and the religion that comes to them with the 
declaration that it is "founded upon the Word" 
is readily embraced. 

The Religion of the Mountaineer 

These people are simple in their religion. They 
are averse to any formality, and have little use 
for anything beyond a preaching service. The 
predominating churches are the Methodist, Bap- 
tist, Presbyterian and Christian or Campbellite. 

The country church is usually a one-room 
frame or log building centrally located, sur- 
rounded by a beautiful grove and accessible to 
water. This house often serves the double pur- 
pose of a schoolhouse during the week and a 



74 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

church on the Sabbath. Sometimes two, three 
or four denominations organize churches in this 
same house, each claiming a Sabbath; and it is 
sad to note the rivalry and strife that is thus 
generated among these deluded people of the 
Lord. 

Some of these churches pay their pastors no 
salary, others pay fifty cents to a dollar a month, 
while the average church — not including those in 
the towns — will pay the pastor about thirty dol- 
lars a year. Possibly fifty per cent of these 
churches have no Sunday school, prayer meet- 
ing or religious society. 

Some parts of this mountain territory are ab- 
solutely destitute of the means of grace. Many 
villages and communities are without a church 
of any denomination ; there is no Sunday school, 
prayer meeting or other religious influences of 
any kind. 

These mountaineers are very susceptible to 
gospel influences, and are very emotional in their 
worship. A sermon, to be enjoyed by them, 
must appeal to the emotional nature. The 
preacher who does not cry as he talks, occasion- 
ally at least, and the church member who does 
not shout during the "revival meeting," have lit- 
tle or no religion, in their estimation. 

The "revival season" is the fall of the year, 
and the parents look forward to this time in the 
hope that their children will "git religion and 
jine the Church." The announcement is made 
weeks before, and when the time arrives for the 
"protracted meeting" to begin, the people as- 
semble in great throngs. For many days they 
have been preparing for the occasion. Cooking, 
dressmaking, hat-buying, and "fixing" have been 
the order for a week or more. Many of the 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 75 

smaller boys and girls, it is true, come barefooted, 
but those old enough to have a sweetheart are 
at their best, The people go into the church 
shaking hands and passing compliments until the 
preacher is in his place and a song is announced. 
They have no organ, as a rule, and some of them 
would consider it sinful to play an organ in 
church. The congregation proceeds to sing; fre- 
quently they "sing the notes" first, and then the 
words. After the "song service," the Scriptures 
are read, prayer is offered and the sermon is de- 
livered. You might not call it a sermon, though 
it lasts long enough for two or three sermons, 
about one hour being the rule with most of the 
preachers. Yet, at the conclusion of that exhor- 
tation, the preacher makes a proposition, and the 
people have a hearty handshake, followed by a 
"great revival." That is, a great number of the 
people "get happy," and make the hills echo 
with loud shouts of joy. But this is not all, for 
amid the confused voices of the rejoicing multi- 
tude an old-time song has been started by some 
one who felt the impulse, and the preacher in- 
vites the unsaved forward to the "mourners' 
bench." The shouting Christians go into the 
audience and exhort their friends to come. They 
come weeping and trembling ; and, falling at the 
altar, they cry for mercy. Songs are sung, pray- 
ers are offered and exhortations are delivered 
promiscuously all over the house, and before the 
service closes the penitent friends are rejoicing 
with the others. 

Leader : — What can we do to improve the con- 
dition of these people of the purest American 
stock who are so greatly in need of the gospel? 
How can we give to the one million boys and girls 



y6 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

in the back mountain counties, an opportunity to 
develop Christian character? 

We can give them the Sunday school. 

In eighteen mountain counties covering 6,692 
square miles, with a population of 250,000, there 
is but one Sunday school to each 1,200 persons. 
The total Sunday-school enrollment is 14,000, 
less than six per cent of the population. Let us 
hear one or two reports from the workers in this 
region. 

What the Sunday School Has Accomplished 

One Sunday-school missionary tells us: "The 
bare walls of the houses are decorated with Sun- 
day-school picture cards ; the people begin to 
dress better. One superintendent of a new school 
came five or six weeks in his shirtsleeves, over- 
alls and bare feet; the secretary, a woman of 
about forty, came in her bare feet, but soon the 
superintendent had on new shirt, new trousers 
and shoes, and the secretary had a new hat and 
a pair of new shoes. " The Sunday school incites 
to better things in every direction. One old man 
said, "I'm mighty glad you come, you done a 
heap for my old woman (she was converted), 
and youVe raised the price of land." 

Among the mountaineers, as elsewhere, the 
Sunday-school missionary has a distinct task 
which he can carry forward to the point where 
churches are organized and buildings are erected 
for them, and the way fully prepared for the 
home missionary. Through the labors of these 
workers twelve hundred mission Sunday schools 
have been organized in this vast region. Out of 
these schools seventy-two Presbyterian churches 
have developed. 

Another Sunday-school missionary says: 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS yy 

"When I think of the two hundred and eighty- 
workers and seventeen hundred and fifty pupils 
in these neglected localities on my field, when I 
think of them located in little schoolhouses al- 
most without equipment, when I look into the 
bright, eager faces of those who are hungering 
and thirsting for the glad tidings, I say there is 
no work that pays such rich dividends as the 
work of the Sunday-school missionary— divi- 
dends in workers, men and women trained up 
for God and Christian citizenship/' 

Leader: — As our hearts are full of sympathy 
for the neglected boys and girls of the southern 
mountains, let us join in a brief season of prayer 
for them, and for the consecration of men and 
means to the task of bringing them into the 
light of God's truth. 

Hymn: — "Our Country's Voice is Pleading." 



THE CHILDREN OF THE PLAINS 

Scripture Lesson: — Luke 10:1-12. 
Prayer. 

Leader: — Just as Christ sent out the seventy, 
as we read in our Scripture lesson, so the Church 
sends forth its missionaries, in obedience to the 
command of the Master "beginning at Jerusalem, 
. . . even unto the uttermost parts of the earth. " 

To-day we are to hear about the work of the 
Sunday-school missionaries in the great stretches 
of territory from the Mississippi to the Pacific 
Coast and from Canada to Mexico. The char- 
acter of the service of the Sunday-school mission- 
aries bears a similarity to the commission which 
Christ gave to these seventy whom he sent forth. 

We are to hear from different parts of the field, 
showing the need for this work and how we are 
meeting the need. Before we hear from the first 
speaker let us sing "I Love to Tell the Story. " 
(The Sunday-School Hymnal, "Alleluia," page 

23 1 -) 

First Speaker — The Northwest: 

I represent the great State of Oregon where 
thousands of new settlers are taking up homes 
and by their toil are converting the barren wastes 
into fields of waving grain. But they do not take 
the Church and Sunday school with them when 
they move into these new regions. In the trials 
and hardships of frontier life these things are for- 
gotten, and, unless we send our Sunday-school 

78 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 79 

missionaries to them, the boys and girls will be 
allowed to grow up without any religious in- 
struction or training. 

East of the Cascades lies the great wheat- 
growing section and large stock ranges. Scat- 
tered far and wide over these broad tablelands 
and tucked far back among the mountains, are 
the homes of the people. Dotting the plains and 
hillsides are the schoolhouses where the state 
is giving its children a chance for a secular edu- 
cation, but has shut out from its curriculum the 
greatest Book of all, and forbidden the teaching 
of the things most fundamental in the develop- 
ment of character. With but a few exceptions, 
these schoolhouses are open for religious serv- 
ices, and the Sunday-school missionary is wel- 
come as he comes in the name of the Church 
with the message of life. He is the only man 
who comes into many of these districts far away 
from the towns to give the people, either old or 
young, a chance to hear the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Again and again our missionaries have 
preached to young people of fifteen or more 
years of age who never before had heard a ser- 
mon, and it is not an infrequent thing to hear 
some one say, "That is the first sermon I have 
heard for ten (or fifteen or twenty) years." 

Second Speaker — Washington: 

The conditions in Washington are similar in 
many respects to those that have just been de- 
scribed. This state increased its population one 
hundred and sixty-six per cent in ten years. One 
of the missionaries gives us a view of the situa- 
tion in a recent letter. He writes : 

"My work calls me into the remote and out- 
lying districts sometimes ten, fifty, one hundred 



80 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

miles away from the railways and beaten paths. 
It calls me into communities where the preacher 
and his message have not been heard for years, 
where children stand in wonder at the preacher 
'talking to his plate' (saying grace) before meals ; 
where boys and girls in their teens have come 
to attend the Sunday school for the first time in 
their lives ; where young men and women have 
lived in the canons all their lives without am- 
bition enough to discover what lies beyond their 
circumscribed horizon ; where boys and girls are 
living absolutely destitute of all religious and 
moral training, and succumbing to immorality, 
vice and shame." 

Third Speaker — California and Nevada: 

This region is increasing in population so 
rapidly that our Sunday-school missionaries are 
unable to keep track of the new communities that 
are springing up everywhere. One California 
missionary tells us that he has been traveling at 
the rate of fifteen hundred miles a month and has 
not yet covered his entire field, which comprises 
but one presbytery. "So you see," he writes, 
"that the first Sunday schools that I organized 
will have children in the primary grade, who 
were born since I organized the Sunday school, 
before I can get around to visit the school again. 
Talk about 'circuit riding' in the pioneer days of 
the Middle West ! Why, the Sunday-school mis- 
sionary in southern California has them all 
beaten. I take the railroad as far as it goes, 
then the stage as far as it reaches, then the pack 
train as far as it goes, and finally I take to my 
heels for the rest of the journey. And there is 
much heel work both on the plains and in the 
mountains." 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 8l 

Fourth Speaker — The Rocky Mountain District: 

In one district in Colorado a recent investiga- 
tion revealed the startling fact that there are one 
hundred and thirty-three places ranging in popu- 
lation from one hundred and fifty to one thou- 
sand souls, without Protestant churches of any 
kind, one hundred of these being also without 
a Roman Catholic church. Some of these were 
rural communities, some were mining communi- 
ties scattered up and down a narrow valley, be- 
ing difficult to care for because thus scattered. 
In addition to these, there were four hundred 
and twenty-eight communities of sufficient im- 
portance to have post offices, but without any 
churches. Whole communities were found with 
no adequate religious work. An Idaho mission- 
ary tells us about a prospecting trip which he re- 
cently made through two counties covering an 
area of ninety-one hundred and twenty-five 
square miles, with an estimated population of 
more than eleven thousand. In all this vast ter- 
ritory there are but ten Protestant churches with 
a membership of less than five hundred. The 
railroad facilities in these two counties cover a 
little more than one hundred miles. On that trip 
he traveled by stage, livery wagon, horseback 
and on foot about four hundred miles. He held 
several preaching services and organized four 
Sunday schools; two of these were organized 
where a gospel service was never before held. 

Fifth Speaker — The Southwest: 

County after county may be found without a 
single minister of the gospel. One correspondent 
writes of a section of Arkansas comprising six- 
teen counties with but five ministers. Seventeen 



82 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

counties in eastern Texas have but ten active 
ministers. Amarillo Presbytery comprises forty- 
six counties in the state of Texas and covers 
forty thousand square miles. Think of a single 
Sunday-school missionary working that vast 
region ! 

In some of the older parts of Texas conditions 
are very primitive, and little or no attention has 
been given to the development of the religious 
life of the children. In one community where 
services w r ere conducted, a native preacher had 
just closed a series of meetings in the school- 
house. The good man actually could not read 
the Scriptures in public, so ignorant was he. Yet, 
to use his words, "they had been swimming in 
glory for a week." The only light they had in 
the schoolhouse was one gasoline torch. There 
were always twice as many people present as the 
house would hold. Their religion runs to ex- 
treme emotionalism, still they listen with great 
eagerness to a man who, as they say, "can learn 
them something." 

Sixth Speaker— The Middle West: 

A Minnesota missionary gives us a picture of 
the needs of that state. He tells us that in one 
presbytery comprising ten counties in the north- 
ern part of the state unreached by railroads, there 
are forty thousand boys and girls under twenty- 
one years of age, and only seven thousand of 
them enrolled in Sunday schools. North and 
South Dakota are calling for Sunday-school mis- 
sionaries to reach the thousands of children and 
young people who are living in the rural districts 
without any Christian influences. Parts of Iowa, 
Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska are still un- 
reached by the Church's messengers. A Kansas 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 83 

missionary tells this interesting story about a 
visit to a town of five hundred people in which 
there was no Sunday school or church. "At least 
one hundred and fifty young" people came to the 
first service. Meetings were continued several 
evenings. In the meantime, the few Christians 
were constrained to take hold, literature was 
provided, and they are developing a flourishing 
work. Visiting this field on a recent Sabbath 
morning, bright-eyed, cheery-faced, neatly 
dressed children could be seen coming from all 
directions. At this place young people up to six- 
teen years old were found who had never at- 
tended a Sunday-school service." 

Leader: — Having learned something of the 
needs of this work, we shall now hear a report 
of what has been accomplished. 

Speaker — Results: During the past twenty-eight 
years, more than twenty thousand Sunday 
schools have been organized and more than one 
million two hundred and fifty thousand persons 
have been gathered into them. From these lit- 
tle Sunday schools two thousand, three hundred 
churches have grown, and hundreds have gone 
forth as ministers, missionaries and teachers of 
the gospel. 

Leader: — We all realize that the future of the 
cause of Christianity and the future of our nation 
depends upon the Christian training of the boys 
and girls of to-day. 

As we sing the hymn, "I Think When I Read 
that Sweet Story of Old," let us remember how 
our Saviour cared for the children, and let us re- 
solve to follow his example in giving every boy 
and girl in America the opportunity to know him. 



BROTHERS OF THE FLAG 

The aliens represented by the various charac- 
ters taking part in the exercise, build an Ameri- 
can flag by fastening the different stripes by pins 
either to a curtain at the back of the platform, 
or to a light framework of wood which may be 
covered with green paper or vines, using thumb 
tacks to secure the red and white stripes, or con- 
structing the flag in any way which ingenuity 
may devise. 

No costumes are needed, but they may be used 
if desired. The children (boys and girls) may 
dress simply in white, the boys wearing white 
blouses if they do not have entire white suits. 
On the breast of each alien is pinned the flag of 
his country. A set of fourteen foreign and two 
United States flags, each 11x18 inches, for use 
in this exercise may be obtained for $1.00, post- 
paid. Address orders to the Board of Publica- 
tion and Sabbath School Work, Witherspoon 
Building, Philadelphia, Pa. The flag of a coun- 
try should be represented, not the standard, for 
the standard is far more complicated than the 
flag and used only on special occasions. The two 
Americans also wear flags on the breast. Besides 
the flag on the breast, knotted around the waist 
of each pupil with ends hanging down at the 
side, are narrow ribbonlike strips of cambric 
representing the different national colors. The 
color selected for the gift to our flag should be 
broader than the others and of the right length 
to form the stripes of an American flag about 

84 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 85 

4x6 feet in size. The first six stripes, of course, 
will be longer than the other seven, and the 
flag is built from the bottom up. x At the side 
of the Hollander with the red and white rib- 
bons, hangs a square of blue to be used for the 
field. 

The stars carried by the Hebrew should be 
small enough to allow for the requisite number, 
and may be cut out of gilt paper, each being 
pasted at the center to a frame work of parallel 
bars cut out of very narrow strips of cardboard 
which may be gilded also, and held together with 
brass-button paper fasteners. 

As each pupil recites, he or she should step back on 
the platform, the first to the right of the flag, the sec- 
ond to the left, etc., so when the Americans walk to 
the center for the last part of the exercise, the aliens 
coming forward will be evenly divided on either side. 

American Boy:— I am tired of giving, giving, 
to all the horde of strangers who press forever 
at our doors! Soon there'll be nothing left for 
us. They want a chance for this, a chance for 
that — education, liberty! Soon we'll be crowded 
out of everything. 

American Girl: — I know we hear forever of 
their ills and wrongs. Still, they are sturdy peo- 
ple and I believe they do not do us harm. Soon 
they learn to love our flag and help themselves. 
And truly, does our land grow richer, stronger, 
better every day. 

American Boy: — You will have to prove that 
statement. What can these poor, down-trodden 
people who come forever asking, do for us? 

German Child (running on platform) : — I come 
to your gates as a worker. I earn my way on farm, 
in shop, as worker in the arts, and as a maker 



86 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

of sweet music. Remember, Martin Luther, 
Beethoven and Schiller were my kin. These are 
the colors (lifting them) of my old Fatherland — 
black for strength, white for purity, red for cour- 
age. To your new land I'll give my patient 
courage. (Selects the red and stretches it across 
background and steps to one side.) 

Swiss Child (following the German imme- 
diately) : — The flag of Switzerland is red, with a 
single cross of purity upon it. The people of 
Switzerland are sturdy, skilled in handcrafts, 
truth-loving and virtuous. (Selecting white rib- 
bon.) From the old I'll bring the new a pledge 
of purity. (Stretches the white stripe above the 
red.) 

Italian Child: — Do I come with empty hands, 
a mere beggar to your shores? Not I! I seek 
religious freedom, a chance to grow and learn, 
but indeed I pay my way. I do the work you 
spurn to do. I build your subways, lay your rail- 
roads, and labor in a thousand useful ways. And 
see the gifts from centuries past I bring to you. 
The Latin language is studied by your high- 
school boys and girls, and Roman history and 
laws. Remember Christian art; Raphael and 
Angelo are ours. From the green, the white and 
red of the old flag, I'll pluck the red of high re- 
solve to help the new. (Stretches red band above 
the white.) 

French Child: — Do you think of me as a poor 
immigrant? I helped to give your land a flag 
when you were poor and small. Never let your 
boys and girls forget brave Lafayette. I'll help 
you in a thousand arts and crafts, and from the 
tricolor of ancient France I'll lend you white, for 
singleness of purpose. (Stretches white above 
red.) 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 87 

Child from Great Britain: — From England, 
Scotland, Ireland, Wales, we come to seek a place 
uncramped where we may earn an honest liv- 
ing. You are our kindred anyway, the sons of 
our forefathers, children of the first God-fearing 
immigrants from Britain's shores. We have a 
common literature and laws. From the colors of 
the Union Jack we'll give you courage doubly 
sure, (Stretches red above white.) 

Japanese Child: — In some states you look 
down upon us Japanese. But industry, frugality, 
a courteous grace and clever arts are the gifts we 
add to those of other nations. And from our 
banner's rising sun, we'll shed with humbleness 
a ray of light on yours. (Stretches band of white 
above red.) 

Syrian Child (with Turkish flag) : — From Syria 
I come seeking release from Turkey's cruel op- 
pression by tax, by soldiery and by a false re- 
ligion. Our rich rugs and skillful laces you 
highly prize. Something for your flag I have, 
and valiantly I'll love it! (Stretches shorter red 
band above white.) 

Greek Child: — Do you think I come a beggar? 
You see me selling fruit upon your streets and 
think I have no gifts for your America? My 
ancient language, too, is studied in your schools. 
Greek sculpture, Greek history and philosophy 
are needed for your culture. From my old flag 
of blue and white I've something fair to give the 
new. (Stretches white band above the red.) 

Polish Child (with Russian flag) : — A Russian 
Pole, you do not welcome me, yet once it was not 
so. George Washington was grateful for brave 
Kosciusko's aid in the freeing of your land. The 
Poles love freedom, and by their blood will 
strengthen yours. I stretch this crimson band 



88 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

in pledge of it. (Stretches red band above the 
white.) 

Danish Child: — I am from Denmark. I come 
quite boldly to this land, for Jacob Riis has 
helped to pave the way. America is proud of 
him — philanthropist and writer, the friend of all 
unfortunates and champion of every worthy 
cause. If you will give me half a chance I'll 
make you proud of me. In token of my pure re- 
solve, from Denmark's flag I'll place the white 
above this band of red. (Stretches white band 
above the red.) 

Scandinavian Child (with Norwegian flag) : — 
An ancient Norseman was the first to reach 
America, and well it might have been that I had 
welcomed you as immigrant. In lumbering and 
shipbuilding I'll work with you, and blend the 
courage of the Vikings bold with Yankee shrewd- 
ness. (Stretches a red band above the white.) 

Chinese Child: — Did you ever see a Chinese 
pauper? We always pay our way with work 
you cannot do as well as we. You think of us 
as laundrymen, but we have arts more ancient 
than your own. We invented gunpowder, the 
mariner's compass and the art of printing. We 
can make a rare enamel, and with tireless pa- 
tience work in beautiful mosaics. The Chinaman 
may teach you something of persistence and en- 
durance. (Stretches white band above red.) 

Hungarian Child (Austria-Hungary) : — Few 
dare to work in the dangerous black depths of 
coal mines like the Hungarian, or in the blazing 
iron ore furnace rooms, where I earn my bread 
in this new land. We Hungarians ever have been 
brave, and in the centuries past we saved all 
Europe from the Turk. Our John Hunyady was 
the shield of Christendom. I'll add the topmost 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 89 

bar of valor to your flag. (Stretches red band 
above the white.) 

Dutch Child: — I should be no alien to you, for 
'twas Holland settled old New Amsterdam, and 
Holland blood runs in the veins of many. Blue 
stands for truth, fidelity to purpose, and sturdy 
Hollanders will help you keep your word (plac- 
ing blue field in flag). 

Hebrew Child : — The Hebrews come from Rus- 
sia, Austria and many other lands. We have no 
flag we call our own, and we are much despised. 
We spend long hours in the sw r eatshops, and toil 
for little wage. Still, remember, the Bible is our 
gift to you. We cannot add a color to your flag, 
but in our Bible there are principles of righteous- 
ness to guide your ship of state like stars at 
night. The God in whom you put your trust w r as 
first the Hebrew's God. We'll add the stars of 
heaven to your field of blue. (Attaches stars to 
flag.) 

American Boy (stepping with the American 
girl to the center of the platform, where each 
takes the hand of the nearest alien, each alien 
in turn taking his neighbor's hand) : — I see I 
have been selfish in grudging you a home 
among us, and a fair chance to live and grow 
and learn. 

American Girl :— Now I know you can repay a 
thousandfold the little that you ask of us — with 
gifts material and spiritual. (Pointing to the 
flag.) The colors of our country's flag are colors 
of the Christian flag as well. 

American Boy: — True Brothers of the Flag are 
you, and all of us together (joining hands again) 
like those first immigrants of old, will help 
maintain the glory of the Stars and Stripes for- 
ever ! 



9 o SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

Hymn: — With hands still joined all sing 
"America." 

Additional copies of this program may be obtained 
free of charge upon application to the Sabbath-School 
and Missionary Department, Witherspoon Building, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 



OUR WELCOME TO NEW AMERICANS 1 

Characters 

Six to ten children as "American Children/' in 
ordinary dress. Ten children as "Little Immi- 
grants/' in costume, to represent: 

Polish Girl German Girl 

Syrian Boy Hungarian Boy 

Bohemian Girl Italian Girl 

Greek Boy Russian Jewish Boy 

Swedish Girl French Girl 

If costumes accurately representing the na- 
tions named can be secured, they should, of 
course, be used. As this will ordinarily be im- 
possible, the attempt should be made to im- 
provise costumes which will secure variety in 
color and general appearance. The ingenuity of 
the local committee will easily succeed in work- 
ing out the problem. The pictures of people of 
various nationalities found in dictionaries, en- 
cyclopedias, et cetera, will be of service. Avoid 
anything grotesque. Each immigrant child 
should carry the flag of the appropriate nation. 
These flags can be easily made from colored pic- 
tures to be found in any unabridged dictionary 
or purchased at small expense. 

The American children, each bearing a flag, 
march to the platform singing, "O God, Beneath 
Thy Guiding Hand/' taking their places at the 
back of the platform. 

1 Adapted from an exercise published by The Congre- 
gational Home Missionary Society. 

9i 



92 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 



O God, beneath thy guiding hand 
Our exiled fathers crossed the sea; 

And when they trod the wintry strand, 

With prayer and psalm they worshiped thee. 

Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer : 
Thy blessing came; and still its power 

Shall onward, through all ages, bear 
The memory of that holy hour. 

Laws, freedom, truths, and faith in God 
Came with those exiles o'er the waves ; 

And, where their pilgrim feet have trod, 
The God they trusted guards their graves. 

And here thy Name, O God of love, 
Their children's children shall adore, 

Till these eternal hills remove, 

And spring adorns the earth no more. 

When in their places on the platform, let the 
"Immigrants" enter, bearing their flags (while 
the others are still singing), from two sides of 
the room, the two lines crossing each other on 
the platform. Let the "Immigrants" then take 
their places on either side of the platform. Let 
them stand so a moment after this song is fin- 
ished, then let the "Immigrants" repeat the fol- 
lowing, with the response by the "Americans" 
after each verse: 

Immigrant Children 

To a land of strangers 

Fearfully we come. 
For a far voice called us, 

Called us to your home. 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 93 

American Children 
Welcome, strangers, welcome, 

Welcome to our shores. 
You have come from lands afar, 

But our home is yours. 

Immigrant Children 
We have left behind us 

Many a loved one; 
And our hearts are lonely 

As to you we come. 

American Children (same as before). 

After this song let the "Immigrants," in turn, 
step to the center of the platform and give their 
recitations, telling- why they have come to this 
country. 

RECITATIONS OF IMMIGRANTS 

Polish Girl (with Russian flag) : — I came with 
my father and mother from Poland. Our land is 
part of Russia, so I carry the Russian flag. We 
do not love it. My father says some day we will 
have our own flag again. It is hard for many 
people in Poland to make a living. So we came 
to America. My father works in a mine, so we 
do not see much of him. My sister works all day 
in a shop making petticoats, so we get along 
pretty well. We are glad we came to America. 

Syrian Boy (with Turkish flag) : — When my 
brother went to the mission school in Syria, a 
missionary told him he could learn much knowl- 
edge in America, so we came. He is going to 
work in my uncle's store, where they sell rugs 
and laces and all things like we have in Syria. 



94 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 



I am going to school, and he will go evenings, 
so we can learn to be smart like the missionary 
who came to help us. Then we will go back and 
tell the people there what we learned, because 
everybody in Syria can't come to America, you 
know. 

Bohemian Girl (with Austrian flag) : — I am 
glad now I came from Bohemia, because we 
found my father here, where he works in a stock- 
yard. My mother had to work hard for a long 
time to get money to come with, and my father 
sent us some, too. Then the ship was so crowded 
and dirty when we came that we were sick all 
the time and thought we would never reach 
America at all. But now my mother she is no 
more sad, but smiles on me and says, "Ah, 
Margarita, it is worth all the hard times we had 
to get money to come with/' 

Greek Boy: — My brother work for my uncle in 
his candy store in America for a long time. He 
say America it is beautiful, so my father sold all 
our things in Greece and brought us to this coun- 
try. Now my father own a pushcart, and every 
day he sell his fruit and bring to my mother lots 
of money. He say that some day he will buy a 
store and sell candy and fruit, and when I am 
big I can help him sell. We love Greece and Ave 
are proud of it, too, because of its great books 
and great heroes, but we like America better. 

Swedish Girl: — Many people have come to 
America from the village where we lived in 
Sweden. We had good churches and schools 
there. But there was not a chance to get a 
home there as there is in this big land. Some- 
times the old people get homesick, but the chil- 
dren find so much fun in America that they 
would not like to go back. Of course, most of 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 95 

us work hard, but mother says that is good 
for us. 

German Girl: — I live with my aunt and am 
trying to earn money to help bring my mother 
and little Hans and Gretchen. It's pretty lone- 
some, but will be better when mother comes. I 
have a sister who works for a rich lady and gets 
big wages. I go to see her sometimes. We have 
a church near by where German is spoken, but 
I like better to use English. 

Hungarian Boy (with Austrian flag) : — Oh, 
this b\g America ! It is too strange here, and I 
am afraid of all these people because they do not 
look like the people in my country, and they 
wear such funny clothes. But my father says 
I would have to go in the army when I got old 
enough if we stayed in Hungary, and my brother 
died in the army. My father likes it here be- 
cause he feels free and can say and do just what 
he likes, so I must learn to love America. 

Italian Girl: — We have not been here long. 
We have to keep boarders in our few rooms, and 
all of us work many hours a day. I wish I could 
once go inside a fine house and see how it looks. 
My father says that soon I am going to school. 
It may be, though, that we will go back to Italy 
to live by and by. It is beautiful over there. 
We call it "sunny Italy." 

Russian Jewish Boy (any foreign flag) : — We 
came from Russia, but we hate the name because 
the Russians rob and kill the Jews. They say 
they are Christians, but they do not act like 
Christians do in America. Many more of our 
people would come here if they could. My father 
keeps a clothing store and I go to school. By 
and by I am going to college if I can. 

French Girl: — In France my father died and 



96 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

my mother was very poor. We had to work very 
hard, and even then we could hardly get along. 
My sister knew how to make dresses, and one 
American lady told her she could find plenty of 
work in America, so my sister and I left France 
and came here. She was a long time finding 
good work, and she would come back to the 
room where we lived and cry every night and 
say she wished she had never left France. But 
now she has work in a store, and she says soon 
we will move to a better place, and then, when 
she has saved enough, we will send for my 
brothers, so they can come here, too. 

One of the "Americans" will then step for- 
ward and address the "Immigrants" with the 
following recitation: 

We are glad you have all come to America. 
We hope you will find in this beautiful land the 
happiness and success you are seeking. We 
hope that Zenos will have a store some day, 
and that Jakie will be able to go to college, and 
that it will not be long before Rosie can bring 
over her brothers. Our forefathers came from 
Europe many years ago, just as you are coming 
now. God's blessing rests upon our land because 
they were Christian men and women and built 
our nation upon the Bible and taught their chil- 
dren to love God and to keep his commandments. 

We want you to love America and America's 
God, and help us to make this more of a Chris- 
tian land than it is to-day. We are members of 

the -. Presbyterian Sunday School. 

There are about ten thousand of these schools 
scattered throughout our land. We hope each 
one of you will become members of the Sunday 



FIFTEEN-MINUTE PROGRAMS 97 

school. We study the Bible, which teaches us 
about our Saviour and tells us how to live hon- 
est, true and upright lives. Our prayer is that 
God will bless you and make you a blessing to 
your newly chosen home. 

All will then sing "America," the entire Sun- 
day school joining with them. 

At the beginning of the third stanza all will 
march off the platform. 

Additional copies of this program may be obtained 
free of charge by writing to the Sabbath-School and 
Missionary Department, Witherspoon Building, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 






IV 

HOW TO OBTAIN INFORMATION 



"HOW CAN OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL HAVE 

A SHARE IN SABBATH-SCHOOL 

MISSIONS?" 

The answer: 

Eight hundred to one thousand dollars pro- 
vides the salary of a Sunday-school missionary 
for one year, according to the location. 

Fifty dollars, or any multiple of that sum, will 
give you a proportionate share in a missionary's 
support. 

Twenty-five dollars will organize a mission 
Sunday school and furnish it with supplies for 
one year. 

Ten dollars will provide a mission Sunday 
school with a library, Bibles or hymn books. 

Birthday offerings may be applied toward a 
share in a Sunday-school missionary's support. 

Children's Day offerings, by direction of the 
General Assembly are applied toward the sup- 
port of Sabbath-school missionary work. 

Rally Day offerings are given for the support 
of missionary work among foreign immigrants. 

Special exercises for Children's Day (second 
Sabbath in June) and Rally Day (last Sabbath 
in September or early in October) are prepared 
by the Sabbath-School and Missionary Depart- 
ment, Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia, and 
furnished free of charge, in the quantities de- 
sired, together with attractive literature for dis- 
tribution, offering boxes and envelopes, appro- 
priate recitations, et cetera. 

Children's Day supplies will be ready for dis- 
tribution after April first in each year. 

Rally Day supplies may be obtained after 
August first. 

101 



102 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

CORRESPONDENCE 

Inquiries are invited concerning the needs of 
various fields, special objects toward which con- 
tributions may be made, mission schools which 
may be assisted, or any other matters pertain- 
ing to this work. 

LANTERN SLIDES 

The Board of Publication and Sabbath School 
Work offers four sets of slides, illustrating its 
missionary work: 

1. Covering the Entire Field. 74 slides. 

2. The Mountaineers of the South. 76 slides. 

3. In the Rocky Mountains. 71 slides. 

4. Immigration, yy slides. 

Many of these slides are made from photo- 
graphs taken by the Sunday-school missionaries, 
and they illustrate in a graphic manner the ex- 
periences of these workers in taking gospel privi- 
leges to the neglected parts of our own land. 
Many of the slides are colored. 

Each set of slides is accompanied by a printed 
lecture, which may be read while the slides are 
being exhibited. 

Rental fee, $1.00, besides the expressage both 
ways. For full particulars, address Sabbath- 
School and Missionary Department, Wither- 
spoon Building, Philadelphia, Pa. 

FREE MISSIONARY LEAFLETS 

An assortment of leaflets containing informa- 
tion about the work of the Sunday-school mis- 
sionaries, descriptions of needy fields, and other 
items concerning Sunday-school missions, may 
be obtained singly or in quantities, free of 



HOW TO SECURE INFORMATION 103 

charge, by writing to the Sabbath-School and 
Missionary Department, Witherspoon Building, 
Phiadelphia, Pa. 



FREE LEAFLETS ON SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
METHODS 

Literature describing Teacher Training work; 
Organized Bible Class activities for adult and 
teen-age pupils, Home Department, Cradle Roll, 
Graded Lessons, Plans for Membership Increase, 
and all the other ten points of the Interdemoni- 
national Sunday-school Standard, together with 
a wall chart showing the requirements of a 
standard Sunday school, may be obtained, free 
of charge, by writing to the Sabbath-School and 
Missionary Department, Witherspoon Building, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

BOOKS FOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND 
MISSIONARY LIBRARY 

ON THE FIRING LINE WITH THE 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

By John M. Somerndike 

Long and varied experience in dealing with 
the problems of Sunday-school missions has 
given Mr. Somerndike exceptional preparation 
for writing with authority on this theme. "On 
the Firing Line" presents the subject of Sunday- 
school missions in a masterly manner. The illus- 
trations add much to the value of the book. 
Problems connected with the evangelization of 
the Middle West and Far West, of the South 
and Southwest, of the mountaineers and the 



104 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSIONARY 

negroes, are fairly and graphically stated, and 
factors in their solution clearly presented in this 
fascinating volume, which is suitable for a course 
in mission study. No one can study this sug- 
gestive handbook without learning much about 
his country; no one ought to study it without 
having his interest in Sunday-school work broad- 
ened and deepened. — A. H. McKinney, in the 
Auburn Seminary Record. 

Illustrated; cloth, 6oc. net; paper, 40c. net. 

PLANTING THE OUTPOSTS 
By Robert Frederick Sulzer 

This is a delightful autobiography, although 
the work done by Mr. Sulzer for the people of 
the plains occupies more attention than his own 
adventures. But one who has spent twenty-five 
years on the prairies has had adventures and 
they are told here with spirit. America's heroes 
were not confined to the Civil War. They have 
been in her home mission service. We wish a 
good many boys could read the story of Mr. 
Sulzer's early days, and how he made himself 
the splendid servant of the Church and the na- 
tion. The book gives a fine picture of America 
in the making. — Christian Work and Evangelist. 

Illustrated; cloth, 60c. net. 

BY-PRODUCTS OF THE RURAL SUNDAY 
SCHOOL 

By John M. Somerndike 

It is an exceedingly interesting story and 
packed full of material for illustration. A perusal 
of it stimulates a spirit for Christian service, as 
one reads of the way in which this institution 



HOW TO SECURE INFORMATION 105 

has been the instrument for cleaning up de- 
graded communities, for preparing the way for 
strong churches, for supplying valued leaders 
for the kingdom and in the ministry, and for 
evangelism. Its adaptability makes it the ideal 
organization for pioneer Christian work in any 
community, and in some communities for per- 
manent Christian activity. The material vised is 
drawn especially from the work of the Sunday- 
school missions of the Presbyterian Church, but 
the book will be found useful in any study of 
this important subject. — Christian Intelligencer. 
Illustrated; cloth, 60c. net. 

Send orders to 

The Presbyterian Board of Publication 

Headquarters : PHILADELPHIA, Witherspoon Bldg. 

New York, 156 Fifth Ave. Chicago, 509 S. Wabash Ave. Cincinnati, 420 Elm St. 

Nashville, 415 Church St. St. Louis, 313 N. Tenth St. San Francisco, 400 Sutter St. 

Pittsburgh, 204 Fulton Bldg. 



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